Passages
by celestial-insanity
Summary: Shepard's job isn't done yet. After losing her three key pieces in the war against the Reapers, she must wrap up some business before the biggest fight of her life. A sequel to Team MilkyWay.
1. Aria

This is a continuation of the series **TEAM MILKYWAY, **a self-insert story written by myself, hk47fan, and TehMarishal as Abby, HK, and Sarah respectively. It is highly recommended you read that before this.

**Passages** takes place immediately after Team MilkyWay concludes.

* * *

><p><strong>Omega<strong>

You had your power-hungry fools in the corner, socializing with an air of forced cordiality in their stance as they calculated their chances of rising through the meaningless ranks; the gamblers played their games by the tables, hell bent on making a quick profit; those looking for an easy score lingered by the strippers, following their curves with eager longing evident in their hunched shoulders and bright eyes; there were the drunks by the bar, helping themselves to a vial concoction that would ultimately send them towards oblivion; and then the others, the business partners, the young ones, the 'couples' looking for a drug-induced good time.

Aria's sanctuary.

Joker seemed to be wrapped up in the movements of an asari stripper on one of the tables. As Shepard watched, she winked at him and gave him a small wave like they were old friends. He pulled at his collar uneasily. "Wait – she's waving at – hey, Commander, can I –"

"Business before pleasure, Moreau," she reminded him.

"You take all the fun out of it," he complained.

"You can make a fool of yourself later," she said. "Aria's upstairs. Let's go."

"Hey, honey, you want a drink?" A short, black man with a bright blonde goatee sidled up to Miranda, a frothing blue shot glass in his hand.

"No, thanks," Miranda said shortly, purposely looking away from them.

"Cold as _ice,_ baby!" the man howled joyfully. "I like you. Come to my table when you have a chance, and we'll have a chat. Drinks on me."

"Right."

The man sauntered back to his table and Miranda pursed her lips in an ill-disguised display of disgust. "I hate clubs," she said. "Absolutely hate them." Miranda had a shadow of a bruise on her right cheekbone, but otherwise there was no outward sign that she had been involved in the fight of her life only a day and a half ago. She was still beautiful, and she had that outward saunter of unconscious confidence that was responsible for more head-turning than her looks. And she had a gun.

"You just hate picking roofies out of your beers," Joker said helpfully. "So, uh, I'm guessing she's up there?" He pointed.

_Correctomundo._ Abby's expected response rang clearly in her head. She tried not to think about it. "Yeah, up there. And Joker? Best behavior."

"Hey, I'm wearing my good pants. What could go wrong?"

Aria was waiting for them as she said she would. She was still in the same place Shepard had left her last time, legs crossed, arms folded casually across her chest. She looked as if somebody had frozen her there. The red lights dancing on her cerulean skin made it glow a deep, royal purple. "Looks like T'Soni made the right move, Shepard," Aria said, gesturing at a booth next to her. Shepard took a seat. "Sounds like I owe you a beer."

"If you help me out, I'll owe _you_ a couple of beers," Shepard pointed out.

"Right." Aria gestured for one of her turian companions to take a seat next to her. "Let's get started. This is Iriak. He'll get you set up." She looked up at Joker. "This is the pilot?"

"Yes," Shepard answered. "Jeff Moreau."

Joker nodded. They'd decided early on not to tell Aria about EDI.

"How much is this going to cost me, Moreau?" she asked, steepling her fingers together.

"There's quite a lot of external damage," he said respectfully. "I'm thinking about fifty-thousand. We can cover most of it with the funds received from Cerberus, we're just lacking the materials and the manpower."

"And I don't believe that going to a Cerberus installation for repairs right now would be the smartest move on our part," Shepard said.

Aria raised an eyebrow. "You piss them off?"

"We had a disagreement about our long-term goals," Shepard stated.

"Interesting. I'd be interested in hearing the full story."

"Fair enough." Shepard inclined her head.

"Over drinks. What'll you have?"

"Just a beer. Any brand will do."

Aria fluttered her fingers at one of her personal guard, who then nodded and left the room. "Iriak and Moreau will discuss what they need over there," she said, pointing to a table on the other side of her personal room. "Get me a shopping list and I'll see what I can accommodate you for."

Joker and the turian went to their own private place. Both had their datapads out. Shepard, confident that the deal would go smoothly, turned away. And if it didn't, Miranda was keeping an eye on them.

"So," Aria said, "I'll supply the raw resources and the crew needed to repair the ship. You said it was external damage – any internal?"

"Nothing our own techs can't take care of," Shepard replied calmly. She respected Aria, but she was not going to let the crime lord into any of her ship's computer systems. "Our biggest concerns are the holes on the lower half of the ship."

"Very well. Your crew will supervise my crew. There won't be much to worry about – sounds cosmetic. Iriak can get that sorted. Any upgrades to your remaining systems, talk to him about it."

"Is he your point man for this type of thing?"

"You can say that."

"Right." Her guard returned with two unopened bottles of beer and placed one in front of Shepard. Miranda was not offered one. "I have another request," Shepard said, after taking a drink.

"Fire away."

"We've been working our asses off for a while now," she said. "The crew needs some shore leave. However, Omega's a dangerous place. They've proven themselves capable, but most of them are still recuperating from being held captive by the Collectors. I'd like to rent out the VIP section for the night."

"I'm sure that we can manage something," she replied. "I bet that friend of yours won't be drinking ryncol anymore. How long did it take until she was able to walk again?" She smiled indulgently.

A smile quirked at the corner of her lip, and she took a long draught of her beer. "She was killed. Along with two others."

"Which two?" Aria asked.

"A boy and girl – young adults," Shepard said. That had to be pushing it – HK and Abby were both teenagers. Sarah had been the adult. "You wouldn't know them that well. They were only on the station once."

"When you were taking out the Ardat-Yakshi," Aria said. "I remember. Tagging along with the Justicar and Lawson. Shame they're dead – didn't really understand why you took them that young, anyway. Were they handy in a fight or something?"

"Relatively," Shepard said. "They'd done more tangible research on the Collectors than Cerberus. They were helpful, but I should have watched over them better. That was my failing."

"Sometimes we all need to lose something to remind ourselves how mortal we actually are," Aria said. "Now, how are you going to live up to your end of the bargain?"

Shepard handed over a data disc. "That's all Jeff could pick up on the scanners. The base was advanced, but it was organic. We destroyed it on the way out and I'm not planning to give you the IFF, but that's… well, that's everything."

"Useful," Aria said. For a first time, a smile appeared on her face. "The Collectors gave me some problems a little bit ago. Glad to hear they're gone."

"They used to be Protheans."

Aria head jerked as if a fly had landed on her scalp. "Excuse me?"

"Everything is on the disc," Shepard said. "But basically, yes. We were able to isolate a strand of Collector DNA and match it up to some preserved Prothean strands. They've undergone extensive genetic modification."

"That's… interesting." Aria slipped the disc into an inside pocket. "Anso, go have a chat with Jaruut. Tell him that I'm taking over for tonight." After Anso left, Aria turned to regard the Commander. "Go ahead and send your crew, Commander. Don't make a mess upstairs. After Moreau and Iriak are done, I'll send him up there. Unless Miss Lawson wants to stay and supervise, considering her hatred of clubs."

"Sounds good," Shepard said. She stood and pat Miranda on the shoulder. "Call me in an hour with a status update."

"Of course, Commander."


	2. Downtime on Omega

Joker awoke with a groan, touching his head feebly as he turned over in his bed. Judging from the throbbing headache, he had a hangover... though it didn't seem too bad. Maybe he didn't drink all that much.

Joker was no novice to the bottle and had gotten drunk plenty of times in his life, but he usually didn't drink enough to screw with his memory. It took him a few moments to remember where he was, and even longer to remember what had _happened_ the previous night. He was in a nice set of quarters within the VIP suite in the back of Afterlife. He could somewhat remember spending most of the night going over what the ship needed for repairs with that turian, and then he'd spent another few hours at the _Normandy_ herself helping Miranda and EDI supervise.

Eventually, Miranda had insisted that he go and get some sleep, saying that she could handle everything. He must have looked tired, and when he passed by a reflective surface he did see the bags under his eyes. Joker was a soldier and used to battle. He had seen his fair share of destruction, even death.

He would never admit this to anyone, but that last battle had taken a lot out of him. The crew had been taken right out from under him by the Collectors and they almost took the ship as well. If it hadn't been for EDI, everything would have been lost and he would probably be part of the Reaper-larvae right now along with the rest of the crew. Shepard would never have gotten through the relay without the Normandy.

He supposed that part of him had resented those three psychics for never telling him about what was coming. It made a bit more sense, he figured, why Sarah acted the way she did and why she went bat-shit crazy, as Zaeed put it. But that didn't make things any easier.

He didn't like thinking about it. It still stung in a horrible way. First, Sarah. That had never happened before on any ship he'd served on. The very idea that people could die in places as private as Shepard's quarters was freaky, and it was sobering. The mood after that was pretty somber.

He and EDI managed to navigate through the Omega 4 relay okay. It was the kind of challenged he craved, a way to show people that, hey, he was the best at what he did. Nobody could have done what he did – not Tali, not Legion, and not even Shepard. But he hated the _waiting_ part. He hated listening to the comm chatter from the cockpit. He'd managed to steel himself against it over time, but he still felt like pissing his pants whenever he heard, _"Assuming control."_

"_HK's down!"_ Kasumi's yell brought back the same dark, cloying feeling against his chest. He didn't like that feeling. Listening to somebody die… no, he didn't like that at all. First Ashley, then Shepard. He couldn't imagine what it had been like down there, only that it had gotten pretty bad. He still didn't know how exactly he'd been hit.

And listening to his last words with the biotic freak? Yeah.

Abby would've freaked _out_. There was no question. She was what, sixteen? He couldn't bring himself to get her killed, however accidentally. So he gave the order to EDI to open up Shepard's private channel.

"_HK was killed in action. The rest are holding."_

He couldn't imagine the look on her face. He didn't want to. He remembered Tali gripping the back of his seat, sighing in disbelief.

The memories played themselves out for him, scene by scene. Just as Shepard downed the Reaper, EDI gave the order for the crew to retreat, right before Shepard herself did. After she pissed off the Illusive Man, he heard a scream that made him jump in his seat.

Cue zombie Reaper.

"_Abby, what the hell are you DOING?" _Shepard sounded as though she were on the edge of control. _"Shit, can you hear me? ABBY!"_

Abby was babbling some such nonsense, but it was so quiet that Joker couldn't hear it over the sounds of battle. And then Shepard was ordering Jacob to one side, Zaeed to the other. Something was going on with Abby. She was doing something stupid, and it sounded like she was being stabbed while she was doing it.

He didn't really know what happened after that. Miranda started screaming to take cover. He heard an explosion on both ends. Mordin was hit. The two of them got separated from the rest of the crew and had to go around. As he spoke to Shepard, Miranda and Mordin made it to the airlock. Then, the group attacking the rest of the crew suddenly turned and began _running_ for Shepard. Miranda and Mordin wouldn't be able to hold them off by themselves.

He grabbed the assault rifle and left his post.

Jacob was carrying Abby. Shepard took her from him. Jacob and Zaeed made the jump. Miranda and Jacob didn't even say anything to each other, just went on with their biotics and pulled Shepard in. Joker got a flash of Abby's bloodstained face before he pushed the button and the door closed.

And then he had a job to do. And while he did it, she passed away in the Medical Bay. EDI was the one who told him.

And thus, they were left with none.

He didn't want to do this. He didn't want to replay the entire thing in his head over and over. He'd done that enough to know where it got him.

Joker sighed as he turned over in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He had no idea what time it was and he didn't care. This was the first time he'd really had a chance to do nothing, to think about what happened and consider his feelings. It honestly felt better when he didn't have time to stop, when he could focus on piloting or on the mission.

Now the mission was over. They still had a few final things to wrap up, and then they would have to face the Reapers themselves at some point... right? Hell, it was never over. It never ended.

On second thought, maybe it was better to have something to do. He didn't want to think about it.

A sound coming from deeper within the apartment caused him to start. He sat straight up and looked around, suddenly fearing an intruder. He did have a pistol within reach, but due to his condition he couldn't exactly defend himself in hand-to-hand combat.

"Urrrggggh... Jeff?" came slurred feminine voice, one that probably sounded sultrier and less whiny under better circumstances. "Where are you-" This was followed by a gut-wrenching sound, and a wet sound like something being expunged into the toilet. Someone was in the bathroom puking their guts out.

"What the hell?" Joker threw aside the covers and got out of bed as quickly as he could, touching the bed post for support. He hadn't put his braces on yet, which meant he had to move very carefully. He was wearing nothing but his boxers.

He slowly and painfully made his way toward the bathroom, trying to ignore his throbbing head. The light wasn't making things any better. When he reached the door and looked inside, he saw an asari kneeling down next to the toilet. She was completely naked.

And that was when he remembered everything.

The truth was, he didn't go directly to his room after Miranda told him to go get some sleep. He'd passed through Afterlife and he'd seen that asari woman who'd waved at him. She'd given him a couple of dances, some kisses on the cheek. He was getting drunk, so he invited her to the private room Aria had set aside for him. She promised to come in after her shift.

He couldn't even remember most of what happened the night before, though something told him that he'd dozed off fairly early. She'd been drinking already and was already pretty drunk by the time she arrived, and they'd continued to have drinks as they lounged on the bed and enjoyed each other's company. She'd even offered other things, but, even drunk, he knew that he didn't want to have sex with random women on Omega. If he caught an STD from an asari stripper, Chakwas would never let him live it down.

Judging from the way the asari looked, it was pretty obvious that she'd continued drinking even after he'd gone to sleep. She smelled like booze, she was obviously sick, and she had little control over her mobility. She'd gotten wasted.

"Uh... hey there," Joker said, addressing her. He winced slightly when he realized he couldn't remember her name... or if he'd even asked for it. Had he? If he hadn't, that was just bad manners. "You okay?" He moved to stand near her, ignoring his headache. He frowned slightly when he noticed her pawing the water inside the toilet bowl. "Uh, what are you doing?" he asked her, disgusted.

She smiled stupidly. "I'm trying to catch the fish!" she answered, still sweeping her hand through the toilet bowl.

"Aw, _yuck_," Joker said, touching her shoulders and attempted to pull her away. "Come on, we should get you cleaned up. I'm sure you have to get back to work or something."

"No... I want to... I want to catch the fish!"

"There aren't any fish in there. You're still drunk."

"I'm not _drunk_!"

"Lady, you're looking for fish in a toilet." He paused, to let that statement sink in. Shit, why did he always get himself into these situations whenever he had any type of shore leave? "Come on."

After a few minutes, Joker managed to get her away from the toilet and succeeded in cleaning her up a little. And that was when he had to ask her one very important question:

"Where are your clothes?" _What is her name? _Then again, if he asked her for her name in this state, she wouldn't get too offended, would she?

"I... don't remember," she confessed with a shrug. "Maybe I flushed them down the toilet."

Joker sighed. He then checked around the bed and the bathroom, and everywhere in between. He couldn't find her clothes anywhere. "Okay look," he said as he grabbed a towel from the shower, "what's your name?" He wrapped her up in the towel, trying not to focus on her assets.

"Leilandra."

"Leilandra," Joker repeated quietly to himself. "Okay, Leilandra, listen. You can stay here until you... feel better. Then you have to go home." He helped her over to the bed and, with a bit of effort, he got her to lie down. He then had to lift her legs up and put them atop the covers so that she wouldn't fall off.

She smiled at him, although her eyes had an unfocused quality. "You are so sweet, Jeff. So... so very sweet. Like a piece of crunchy chocolate." With that, she passed out.

Joker sighed. He then went and splashed some cold water in his face. He dressed himself, put on his braces and, after checking on Leilandra one final time, he headed out. He wasn't going to get any more sleep tonight, he figured; he wasn't going to sleep on the couch or crawl into bed with a drunk, unconscious woman. He had enough problems without illegitimate children to add to them.

He would go and see how things were going back at the _Normandy_.

* * *

><p>Miranda stifled a yawn. She could work longer hours and avoid sleep for far longer than the average human, yet over the past three days she'd barely slept, even after the final battle with the Collectors. There was just too much work to be done that she needed to help with, or so she told herself.<p>

Aria's crew was doing a superb job of fixing up the ship. It would still be a few days before the extensive damage was completely repaired, but she could already see that they were making wonderful progress. The ship wouldn't be as pretty as it was before, but at least they wouldn't have to worry about the mass effect fields giving out during hard atmospheric landings.

It had been at least six hours since she'd told Joker to go and get some sleep. She didn't talk with him much, but she had to respect his piloting abilities, and he was someone that Shepard had trusted right off the bat, unlike her and Jacob. The Commander had been suspicious of most of the Cerberus personnel from the beginning, but she'd given them a chance and gotten to know them pretty well. In the end, they all became comfortable with each other.

And of course there were those damn psychics. At Shepard's request, Miranda had used some of her free time to personally try and track down where those three came from. Shepard really wanted to find their families, anyone who she could tell the news to. Miranda could also imagine that Shepard would want to spend some time with their families if she could find them, perhaps get to know them a little and find out more about them.

However, Miranda had found absolutely nothing. She had used every resource, pulled every string and called up every contact she could think of, and still she found nothing. She even did a general family trace, taking samples of Abby's, Sarah's and HK's DNA and trying to see if it matched with any known family lines on Earth or any of the colonies. This was a real puzzle, and one that frustrated Miranda a great deal. She had succeeded in so many things, from bringing Amelia Shepard back from the dead to helping defeat the Collectors. And she failed to solve the mystery of where three humans came from and who they truly were.

_We should have asked them for their last names when we had a chance,_ she thought with a small frown. They hadn't exactly been forthcoming with that information, and the Commander didn't seem inclined to press for it for some reason. Could it be that there were some things that Shepard felt she shouldn't press, that she didn't truly need to know?

Miranda still wasn't entirely sure what to think of them. She wasn't religious, but part of her almost wondered, at least for a moment, whether some higher force may have sent them... similar to Thane's gods. Or maybe that was just her trying to rationalize her own failings.

"Hey, Miranda."

She turned to see Joker walking toward her, yawning shamelessly as he approached. He looked a bit more rested, yet a bit worse for the wear. He was dressed in a decent pair of pants, but his shirt had stains on it that she could have sworn were alcohol.

"I thought you went to bed," Miranda stated.

"I did, but I needed to go for a walk."

Miranda frowned. "Why? Are you having nightmares?" A slight chill raced up and down her spine as she asked that question. It was then that she realized why she didn't want to go to sleep right now. The reason why she kept pushing herself to keep working, to stay focused on things.

She couldn't escape the nightmares. When she'd tried going to bed after the last mission, she had been overcome with intense dreams. The same thing had happened when she'd pulled an all-nighter and dozed off at her desk in her office.

She wasn't sure what had caused the nightmares or what started them. Usually she had enough control over her cognitive functions, even her subconscious, to stop unwanted dreams before they began. She hadn't had any bad dreams since her early teen years, and she didn't even have nightmares when her sister was in danger. So what was this?

Joker was shaking his head. "Nah, not really. Well... maybe sometimes. But if I had any last night I don't remember."

"Then what were you doing?" Miranda asked, a note of concern in her voice. "You look like you've been drinking. Were you?"

"Yeah, I was. I also had-have-company." He grimaced.

"What sort of company?" Miranda wanted to know.

"This asari girl I met in the club," Joker answered. "We both got drunk last night, but she got even drunker. Right now she's collapsed in my bed." He narrowed his eyes at her. "Why the hell am I telling you this?" he grumped. "What do you care anyway?"

Miranda sighed. "We need to be careful while we are here," she said. "It sounds like this asari turned out alright, but we can't be too trusting of anyone on Omega."

"Yeah. Point taken." He waved a dismissive hand. "Look, I'm probably gonna be up for a while. Why don't you go get some sleep?"

Miranda opened her mouth to say no, that she would rather stay put and continue to supervise. Joker didn't really look like he was in the best shape to do this, although he seemed determined to do something.

"Go on, Miranda," a voice spoke up behind her, causing her to turn and see who it was. It was Shepard. Apparently the Commander had finished up her business with Aria for the night. "You could use some sleep, too," she added. "I'll stay here with Joker for a while."

Miranda stared at the Commander. Shepard was obviously tired, but a solider through and through. She had a stamina that nearly matched her own, and she wasn't genetically enhanced.

Then again, Shepard had probably gotten at least a little more sleep than Miranda had lately.

"Very well, Commander," Miranda said. She opened her mouth, and then closed it. Whatever she'd been about to say died on her lips. "Good night, Shepard," she said quietly.

"Good night," Shepard replied. Her expression was neutral and blank, as though she were keeping her inner thoughts to herself.

Miranda left and went to her quarters, locking the door behind her. Since she did not entirely trust the place, she did a thorough search for any spy devices or individuals hiding out in her room, and then she finally began to permit herself to relax.

She stripped out of her uniform and took a shower, running her fingers through her mane of black hair as she felt the hot water pouring over her. It eased the tension in her muscles and she permitted herself to linger under the rush of water, basking in the feel of it.

Eventually she shut off the water and climbed out of the shower, drying herself off. She then slipped into a soft, pink bathrobe-something she would never let anyone else see her in-and sank down onto her bed.

This was the first time she'd allowed herself to truly relax in a soft bed since they'd acquired Legion. She narrowed her eyes, sorting through her thoughts and feelings, cataloging them and putting them into neat little rows and boxes. One thing she definitely appreciated was the mental disciplines that she'd trained her mind with over the years.

She was still human, and she could still make mistakes, and she still had feelings... but she had a superior intelligence and an ordered mind. So what was this nagging feeling that crept up inside of her, threatening to overwhelm her when she wasn't focused on something else to keep it pushed down? What was it that caused her to have bad dreams in her sleep?

Miranda stared blankly at the wall for several long minutes, trying to determine what exactly she was feeling. She hated it when she felt like she didn't know her own mind, her own feelings. She'd always had to be one step ahead of everyone else, to stay in control and stay aware of everything around her.

Then, all of a sudden, it came to her. The realization hit her like a sledgehammer and caused her stomach to tighten.

She was scared.

She hadn't realized just how much she took the three psychics for granted. In the beginning she'd been suspicious and skeptical of them, and she _still _wasn't entirely sure of their intentions, especially since she had no idea where they came from or how they got on the ship in the first place. But over time, she had become... comforted by the fact that they always knew what was going to happen next. At each stop, they would be able to sit down with Abby and HK, and find out what they needed to do and what would happen.

Now that... _luxury,_ was gone. And there was no getting it back. Abby had left a detailed letter for Shepard about a few missions, and apparently Samara had all of Abby's knowledge in her mind.

The only things they knew anything about were the next few missions. Then after that the Reapers would eventually come, and then what? They didn't know what was going to happen. That shouldn't make any difference, because they would all do what they must whether or not they had HK, Abby and Sarah. But...

Why did it feel like they were somehow... vulnerable now?

Miranda's cheeks felt wet, and she felt the tears sting her eyes as they continued to slide down her face. It was the first time she'd cried since she had met her sister on Illium. In the privacy of her room, she simply let the tears fall.

* * *

><p>The batarian's body slumped over the bar, a smoking hole in the side of his head. It was a fresh kill, and all four of his eyes stared lifelessly in four different directions as the head continued to ooze bodily fluids. It was a very messy wound.<p>

Zaeed matter-of-factly slipped his pistol into place on his armor, eyeing his surroundings warily with a keen eye. He'd already known that the batarian bartender liked to try and poison humans in Afterlife, which was why he never ordered any drinks here. Jack didn't know this and she wasn't in the best frame of mind right now. To make matters worse, the batarian had gone up and offered her a tall drink, and she'd nearly taken a large sip from it. A quick scan from his omni-tool had revealed it was poisoned, and thankfully he'd been able to warn her before she swallowed it. The way she'd spit it back out and coated the table's surface with the content would have been comical under other circumstances.

"Fuck it," Jack snapped at Zaeed, shoving away from the table and advancing on him as if she wanted to throttle him. "I could have handled that bastard myself!"

"I know, but I needed to test the calibrations on this gun anyway," Zaeed informed her with a shrug. He couldn't take Jack in a straight fight, and he knew it. "I just upgraded the thing and it seemed a little touchy. But I'll let you have the next one." There, he was being reasonable. He couldn't intimidate her, so he just redirected the anger.

"Whatever." Jack went and sat down at another table, resting her elbows on it and putting her chin in her hands. Somehow she looked like the cross between a depressed woman and a little girl pouting.

Zaeed studied her for a long moment, considering whether or not he should just leave her be. Then again... she'd almost ingested the poison before he came along. This woman hardly needed someone to watch her back, but maybe she needed someone to look out for her, just this once.

He eyed the moonstone bracelet on his wrist, the one he hadn't bothered to take off. He wasn't even sure how that kid had wormed her way into his heart, but somehow he'd always had a soft spot for her. And now she was gone. But he knew her well enough to figure out how angry she'd be if he went out and got drunk on her account. He just pressed it down and didn't think about it. Strange how easy that was.

Zaeed sighed and sat down across from her without even asking. She scowled at him, but said nothing. "I got this for Grunt," Zaeed said, reaching into a bag and pulling out a bottle of ryncol. "On the condition that I could have a sip or two first," he added. "But we've been through a lot of hell. If you're game, I think we should have first dibs at it."

Jack's eyes snapped from Zaeed to the bottle. Her face scrunched up as if she were chewing over a thought that made her angry, or savoring some kind of dark emotion. Was she wallowing in here? Was she blaming herself for HK's death, or was she simply trying to deal with it in her own way?

"Then what are you waiting for?" she finally snapped. "Pour the damn shots." She folded her arms together on top of the table and slumped forward, resting her chin on top of them. "I just want to forget that I know how to feel anything," she muttered so quietly that he almost couldn't hear.

Zaeed opened up the bottle with a snap of his wrist and poured two shots. "When it comes to love, and trying to relieve pains of the heart and soul," he said, "it helps to try and forget, just for a while." He shoved a glass toward her. "Just don't drink too much, too fast, or you'll never recover."

Jack snatched up the shot and practically threw it down her throat. It was as if she didn't care that the stuff could kill her if she wasn't careful. She immediately gagged and dropped the glass, clutching her throat and rasping for breath as her eyes bulged. A deep shudder rippled through her body as the shot glass rolled off the edge of the table and shattered on the floor.

Zaeed shifted, getting ready to get her out of there and call for Dr. Chakwas. However, Jack suddenly went still, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath and let it out slowly. She repeated her deep breathing process a couple more times, and then her eyes snapped open.

"Let's have another," she demanded, smacking her fist down on the table. It was as if nothing had happened.

Under normal circumstances, Zaeed would have taken in just as much-if not more-than Jack was. He was never one to shy away from a drinking contest, especially when it came to testing one's endurance with something like ryncol. But in this case, he realized that he needed to be the sober one for Jack's sake. So he merely nursed his ryncol, barely finishing a whole shot by the time Jack had drank five.

She was one hell of a woman, he had to admit that. And perhaps this was what she needed in a way. A chance to get drunk, get some of her pent-up feelings out, and pass out for a while. She did exactly that. After the second and third shots, she began to babble about her life, talking about how she had committed many crimes and killed many, many people. She'd been chased, she'd been used, she'd been hunted, she'd been psychoanalyzed, and she had been locked away. Everyone had always wanted her for the fact that she was a powerful biotic, so after a while she became a bitch because that was the easiest way to get people to leave her alone.

In a scary way, it was almost like she was the polar opposite of Miranda. Both women had been pushed and driven to give their fullest, but Miranda had been a bit more fortunate. Jack had been tortured and abused, and while blowing up the abandoned Cerberus facility where she'd been raised had helped her some... the only thing that truly gave her purpose was HK.

Zaeed wasn't sure what his opinion of HK was. The kid always seemed kind of quiet, although he did alright in the battlefield. But apparently he was the one person who Jack had taken a shine for and devoted herself to saving. And then HK died in her arms on the Collector base.

The woman looked like she had lost a piece of her soul.

Zaeed simply sat there silently and listened, giving an occasional acknowledgement. He also let it pass when she called him a pussy for not drinking more and he permitted her to drink one final shot. And that was when she passed out.

He sighed and scooped her up into his arms. He took her back to the Normandy and dropped her off in the medical bay, where Dr. Chakwas could check her blood levels and make certain she was alright. He knew that this woman could hold her ryncol better than most humans, but even she had taken in too much. If Mordin was in any better condition, he'd probably insist on giving her a physical.

Once he was certain that she was in good hands, Zaeed went back to his quarters in the engineering section. He spent a little time polishing Jessie, looking at her almost longingly. Then he set the old, worn out rifle back onto the table. He stared at it for a moment longer, and then he slipped the moonstone bracelet off his wrist and put it right beside the nozzle of the old weapon and the knife he'd slipped out of Abby's pocket.

With that, he turned and left the room. He then nearly ran into Grunt, who seemed to be just coming out of his own quarters. The two of them looked at each other, and then Zaeed held up the partially-used bottle of ryncol. The krogan's eyes lit up and, wordlessly, they went into his room.

Perhaps Zaeed would have another chance to risk his health over a few shots of ryncol after all.

* * *

><p>Kasumi had always had a hunch that Kelly loved to shop, but even she didn't realize how much. It seemed that the red-haired woman couldn't get enough of going into stores and checking out every piece of merchandise that she could lay her eyes on. Then again, the woman was probably glad to be on shore leave, and even more happy to be alive.<p>

The ninja had joined Kelly on a shopping trip upon invitation. She figured she might as well; it would give her a chance to stock up on some new equipment and replace some that she'd lost or damaged during the mission on the Collector base. Thankfully, she'd managed to get a good amount of sleep before coming here, but even then she was having difficulty keeping up with the excited, bubbly Kelly.

"Just look these beautiful earrings!" Kelly gushed, staring at a line of jewelry. They contained stones from a dozen different worlds. "Do you ever wear jewelry?" she asked, looking at Kasumi out of the corner of her eye.

Kasumi smiled. More than a few people were curious as to what she looked like under the hood, and coming from Kelly, this might have been a subtle query as to what she looked like. If so, Kelly was going to have to be a lot sneakier about it. "Not really," the ninja answered. "I've acquired a few good pieces over the years for clients who paid well, but I don't have much use for it myself." After all, stealthy people were not required to look pretty unless they were crashing a party.

"I bet you would look amazing with a gorgeous pair of pearl earrings," Kelly said, still looking at the jewelry. "Oh look, there's more clothes over there-let's go take a look!"

Kasumi sighed as she allowed herself to be pulled along yet again to another section of the store. This happened at every store they'd been to; Kelly would gush over something she saw, and then she would see something else and go gush over that. Kelly had only purchased a few items so far and Kasumi hadn't bought anything yet. The ninja felt like she was just along for the ride on this shopping trip, and she silently wondered if the store owner would end up throwing them out.

Kasumi got along with everybody, but she felt undeniably pressed now. The mission was over, they had their shore leave. So why did she feel like she was walking into Death's Door?

"Oh, I'm sorry," Kelly exclaimed suddenly, as if reading Kasumi's mind. Perhaps she'd heard the sigh. "I don't mean to drag you all over the place as if you're here for my benefit. Is there anything you want to look at?" Kelly continued to smile, as though she'd be just as happy to do whatever Kasumi wanted to do.

Kasumi laughed. The other woman's good mood made her borderline hyper, but it became infectious. Then again, it had been a long time since she'd had any shore leave, and there truly was much worth celebrating. _And mourning_, she thought. "Well, I would like a chance to get some new equipment before the day is over," Kasumi said kindly.

Kasumi beamed and grabbed her hand once again. "I know just the store for that!" she said, already dragging Kasumi along. "I saw this great store we passed just half an hour ago." The fact that Kelly had somehow cataloged and memorized the entire area, at least when it came to shopping centers, amazed Kasumi.

They approached the store that Kelly had mentioned, but the sight of a beauty parlor with an advertisement for a spa caused the red-haired woman to stop up short. "Oh my!" Kelly gushed. "We should go in there!"

Kasumi smiled warily and pulled her hand out of Kelly's grasp. "You can go in if you want," she said, "but I'm going to get some equipment."

"Oh, that's okay," Kelly said, unabashed. "I'll just go some other time."

"You look like you really want to go in there," Kasumi insisted gently. "That sort of thing just isn't for me. Why don't you go on?" In truth, Kasumi had no interest in going anywhere that would require her to remove her hood. Also, she didn't really trust a lot of the 'normal' stores on Omega. She knew a scam when she saw one.

"Well..." Kelly seemed visibly torn, and then her face became more solemn as she remembered something. "Oh, man," she murmured, running a hand through her short hair.

"What?"

"I remember when we all in Shepard's quarters, getting the Commander ready to go with you to Hock's party," Kelly said with a sigh. "I promised myself that I would take you, Amelia, Sarah and Abby somewhere to relax and get pampered. But now..." She sighed.

_Amelia?_ Kasumi couldn't help but think. _I had no idea they were on a first-name basis_. She placed a gentle hand on Kelly's shoulder. "Tell you what," she said, "you go pick out some nice supplies, and maybe later we can do each other's nails."

Kelly seemed to brighten at the idea. "Yeah, I'll do that," she preened. "Actually, Rupert asked me to grab some supplies for the bathrooms while we were down, so it'll be like hitting two birds with one stone."

Kasumi smiled. "I'll be in the other store stocking up on equipment while you do that," she said. "Meet you back here in twenty minutes, okay?"

"Will do!" With that, each woman went off to do exactly that.

* * *

><p>"So... how are you holding up?"<p>

Tali sighed softly as she considered Garrus's question. They were both seated across from each other in a small restaurant, Garrus eating his food as she examined a nutrient package she'd bought from an elcor vendor down the street.

"I'm alright," the quarian answered. "The antibiotics are working." She'd suffered a minor suit rupture during the mission on the Collector base, although her suit had automatically sealed off the area and slowed the spread of infection. She was sick, but recovering.

"That's good to hear," Garrus said. He picked up his fork and knife and began to slice a piece of meat on his plate. "Things have been pretty rough lately, for both of us. But I think we're pulling through alright."

"We still have the Reapers to worry about," Tali pointed out. "But at least the Collectors are gone."

"Let's just focus on the victories we've achieved for now," Garrus requested. "I just want to feel like we've gotten control of the galaxy for now. We can worry about what we haven't done yet later."

"All right," Tali said with a small chuckle. "All of us deserve a chance to relax anyway. We've done it. Shepard is… truly amazing."

"She is."

"She has a knack for saving us all from ourselves," she said quietly. "It's strange. I've never seen somebody with that type of connection to other people before. People are drawn to her."

"It's hard to live up to her example," Garrus said. "I've tried to do it here, but… There's only one of her. I was just an imposter."

"That's what I felt like on Haestrom. An imposter. And then she saved me."

"She's saving the galaxy," Garrus said. "I'm honored to be a part of it. Something bigger. I feel like this is where life's been leading me all this time. It's weird. It's… almost like I have a purpose."

"She does a good job at giving us those."

"Yes, she does."

Tali looked away with a sigh, studying the myriad of colorful stalls set up on the other side of the street. It almost looked normal, except that they were all run-down and the vendors packed side-arms. Even the children on the street had a wild, feral look about them. "I was never able to do for Omega what I wanted to," Garrus continued. "I feel like I've failed them. But I feel like that was stupid, too. Yeah, it gave me something to do, and we did do _good work_, it's just… it never amounted to anything in the end."

"Are you kidding?" Tali asked in astonishment. "Garrus, you've saved so many lives by your actions. It wasn't for nothing. People remember."

"People remember," he echoed. "Yeah. Hopefully. I made a lot of enemies. Almost died because I was an idiot. How's that for tactician skills?"

"If you didn't get into that spot, Shepard wouldn't have been able to find you."

"Yeah. I know. I tell myself that. But the thing is, I lost a lot of good friends here. It doesn't change anything, because I would have joined either way, but it makes me angry. I don't like doing this stuff."

"What stuff?"

"I don't like waiting for Shepard to save us all of the time. I don't like _needing_ it."

"That would be fighting against nature," Tali said with a gentle laugh. "You're always being driven by a need to do good. You do a wonderful job and you're amazing at what you do – and you _know_ that. Shepard's… Well, Shepard is driven by the need to save everybody that she can."

"Yeah." He sighed. "I don't mean to go on about that. It's just that coming back here, being here… It makes me think, you know. About all the sacrifices that it took to get here."

Tali nodded. "It's hard coming back, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Or maybe I'm just being extremely depressed today."

"Nobody likes it when people die under their command."

There. She'd hit it on the head. Garrus snorted a little and nodded, pushing his steak away. "Yeah."

Tali bowed her head. "I was there. There was nothing you could have done."

"I know. It doesn't mean that I shouldn't take some form of responsibility for it. He was in my group. I should have kept a better eye on him."

"Jack was protecting him," Tali said. "If she couldn't protect him, who could?"

"I should have stuck Samara with him instead. Jack takes too many risks. She's too much of an aggressive fighter. She and Grunt could have done a better job up front, and –"

"She wouldn't have gone," Tali cut across. "You know she wouldn't have gone."

"I know." Garrus sighed.

"You can't keep looking for ways to blame yourself," Tali said. "You are a good man, Garrus, but you can't control everything."

"Life's tough, deal with it," he said. "Yeah, I get it. I just don't like feeling _guilty_ about it."

Tali shrugged her shoulders. "I'm glad you feel guilty about it," she said. "If you didn't, then you wouldn't care."

Garrus stared at her for a very long time, processing the words. "That's… interesting. I guess I never thought about it like that before."

"You did the right thing, Garrus," she said. "You always do the right thing."

"Even if it gets me in trouble sometimes."

"_Especially_ when it gets you in trouble," she said humorously.

"Yeah. It's nice having somebody here who understands."

"We've been here the longest," she agreed. "And we haven't died yet, so I suppose we're doing something right. But I like it here. The _Normandy_ feels like home to me. I will be sad to leave it."

"When are you leaving?"

"I need to go back to the Flotilla eventually. But I'm going to stay here for now, at least until we see Liara again." Tali shook her head. "Eventually things are going to splinter up, aren't they? People will leave."

"Just like last time," Garrus said.

"What about you?"

"I don't know yet," he said. "I'll be here for her. I don't really have anywhere else to go."

"You know, we don't really know what's going to happen next," Tali said. "The only person Samara's talked to about this is Commander Shepard. I think that _she'll_ stay for a while, but her oath to Commander Shepard is up, isn't it?"

"I think so," Garrus said. "I don't like the idea of everybody leaving."

"I think that Zaeed will be the first to go," Tali said. "Nothing really ties him to the ship anymore, does it?"

"I think you're right. And then Jack."

"And Thane, because of his son."

"Kasumi will wander away eventually," Garrus added.

"I don't know what Miranda will do. She'll stay until the end. She and Jacob can't exactly go back to Cerberus anymore. Not that I don't like that."

"Grunt will probably go back to Tuchanka. Fight with Wrex."

"But Jacob won't leave the Commander. Neither will Joker, or Doctor Chakwas."

"But what about the rest of the crew?" Garrus questioned.

"I don't know," Tali said honestly. "I really don't know."

"Either way, unless we have something tying us all together, we're all going to leave one way or another."

Tali didn't like that thought. "And then, finally, Samara, when she's told everything she can to Shepard."

"And then there were two," Garrus muttered. "That doesn't make me happy."

"No, it doesn't." Tali shook her head. "And I have to go at some point. And you may, too. We don't know what the future will have in store for us. Keelah…"

"Shepard's probably thought of everything. Knowing her, we'll have another meeting soon. Or a private conversation…" Garrus shook his head. "We need Samara to tell us everything. That's the first thing I want to know. Then I'll start predicting."

"Maybe Zaeed will surprise us," Tali said. "He's done that before."

"Zaeed might," Garrus said. "But I don't expect him to stay past the repairs."

"_Status check_," Joker's voice said. _"Where are you guys?"_

"Fest Five, about twenty minutes from Afterlife," Garrus said, suddenly all business. "What's up?"

"_Nothing much, Shepard just doesn't want people getting lost. Check back in with EDI at 0900 hours, and keep your comms open."_

"Sounds good." Garrus looked at Tali. "Actually, I think we're done here. We'll head back now."

"_Good. Somebody needs to keep an eye on Aria's people, because I'm going to bed and Miranda's already out."_

"We'll be there."

"_Roger that."_

Tali and Garrus stood. He brought his plate to the sanitary rack and cracked his neck. "Alright. Let's get going. I don't really like the idea of Aria's people nosing over the ship."


	3. We still have a job to do

Commander Amelia Shepard emerged from the elevator with Justicar Samara in tow. The two of them had gone over everything they could involving what Abby knew as the Overlord Mission, which included reading the notes that the three had left.

Shepard frowned as she approached the briefing room doors, the aged asari walking close behind her. The Commander knew that they still had an edge over the next three missions, but after that… she had no idea. She would be racked up on charges following a batarian incident, and then Kaidan would get involved. It seemed as though only a short time ago she'd been hoping never to see him again, but you couldn't put these things off forever.

The door opened for her and she stepped inside, grimacing ever so slightly as she looked around the room. The last time she'd been here was when she and every member of the ground team were planning the attack on the Collector base. The last time she'd been here Abby had been alive and there'd been some hope of rescuing HK.

She shoved that thought aside. She had already cried in the privacy of her quarters, where no one but EDI-and possibly Joker-could see. In front of her crew she kept her emotions gripped in an iron fist and put forth the stoic mask of a soldier.

They'd given their lives for her. She wasn't about to waste it. Their names were filed away in the part of her head reserved for such things, alongside Ashley Williams and others lost on their journey. They would all be remembered, one way or another. It was the only gift she felt she could give them.

"Hey, Shepard," Jacob greeted when he noticed her enter. Samara took up a position at the briefing room table right next to the Commander. "Did I hear right that we're going to check out Project Overlord?"

Shepard nodded. Her eyes scanned the room, noticing who was present and who was absent. The only people who were missing were Jack and Zaeed, but she already knew where they were. They were both in the medical bay under Chakwas's watchful eyes, recovering from too much ryncol. Those two would simply have to sit this one out, for they were in no shape to leave the ship.

It wasn't like she could blame them, either. She didn't know exactly what had gone down and would prefer not to, but she couldn't be mad at them, especially at Zaeed. It wasn't lost on her that anybody could just get up and go on a moment's notice, but Zaeed had less reason to be here than any. His contract – that vague, invisible, word-of-honor promise to get the job done – had expired when the base was destroyed. She'd have to feel them all out, one by one, to get a sense of where they were at, where they were leaning.

"Are the repairs complete?" Shepard asked, looking directly at Miranda. She already knew the answer, but it helped to ask these questions out loud so that _everybody_ knew.

Miranda nodded. "Yes, Shepard," she said. "Aria's crew worked very quickly and they finished ahead of schedule. We made certain that they kept their work-and their scrutiny-to the exterior of the ship."

"Good," Shepard said. "Are we ready to get underway?"

"I believe so," Miranda acknowledged, folding her arms across her chest. "Miss Chambers received word that Aria is quite satisfied with her payment, and the crew has returned."

EDI had told her this beforehand as well. "Very well," she said. "Okay," she continued, as she placed the palms of her hands flat against the table's surface, "here's the plan. We're going to check out the situation at Aite and do what is needed. I will go down to the surface with a small team, and if I need additional help I'll request more of you to come down in a shuttle. Understood?"

There was a general acknowledgement around the table, and Shepard nodded in satisfaction. "So how exactly do we know what's going on down there?" Jacob asked, crossing his arms. Again, a leading question, constructed in such a way to enable her to explain everything without an awkward transition.

"That's where Samara comes in," Shepard said, gesturing to her asari friend. "Before we passed through the Omega Relay, Abby and Samara exchanged information in some kind of telepathic link. Samara's recovered the memories and…" Shepard trailed off, looking at her. "You need to explain this."

The Justicar stepped forward, her hands clasped behind her back in that familiar, queenly pose. "The images are disconcerting. The melding was not like any I have experienced before – much like the Commander's encounter with the Thorian, I believe. Sometimes I feel as though I'm seeing things through a tunnel, far away and inconsistent. But I have everything – room layouts, dialogues, starting and ending points. Their minds were unique; they thought of things very simply. But there are layers upon layers of it, and it has taken me some time to understand it all. With the help of the instructions they wrote down previously, I've been able to sort through them."

"How reliable is this going to be?" Thane asked.

"I will not fail you," Samara said, her words like a solemn oath.

"That's a little creepy," Kasumi said with a quick jerk of her head. "But I guess it's for the best. I hope you were gentle – I hear that humans are pretty hard to meld with in the first place. And those guys were kooks."

"I did my best to make things as comfortable for her as possible."

"None of us dispute that," Shepard said, effectively ending that line of discussion. "Now we just need to know about Project Overlord. EDI's already forwarded the relevant info to you all, but I want to go over it again.

"Overlord is the code-name for a Cerberus research project based on Aite designed to make a hybrid human-VI. From my understanding, the VI has taken control of the base and the security mechs and killed mostly everyone inside. There are four separate stations we need to hit – Hermes, Vulcan, Prometheus, and Atlas Stations. Hermes is our primary. It has a satellite dish that the VI will no doubt attempt to hijack once we enter the atmosphere. We take down the satellite dish and proceed to Vulcan and Prometheus to override the lockdowns. Once those are down, Atlas Station becomes accessible. That's the hub."

"And then we are faced with a choice," Samara said. "We will meet a doctor named Gavin Archer at Hermes Station that will give us this information. But the lines weave deeper than that. The VI is his brother."

"…huh?" Jacob asked.

"How is that even possible?" Garrus interjected.

"It's Cerberus, anything's possible if you have a lot of enthusiasm and lack the morals needed to reign it in," Shepard said flatly.

"His brother, David, is an autistic man who is a mathematical savant. According to the visions, he has even learned how to communicate with the geth on a base level of understanding," Samara said.

"You're _kidding._"

"His brother forced him into the machine. The end result is pitiable. When the Commander fights her way to him, she will be presented with a choice – leave David with his brother to continue Project Overlord and put a weapon of mass destruction in the hands of Cerberus, or shuttle him to Grissom Academy."

"Easy choice," Thane said quietly.

"What do I get to kill?" Grunt asked excitedly.

"An assortment of security mechs and geth," Samara said. "Prometheus Station is actually a vessel full of crashed geth that the research team was using in their experiments. We'll see others in Atlas Station as well. In some ways, they're David's only friends."

"That's despicable," Tali said. "Cerberus seems to make a habit of exploiting the helpless for their own goals. First the little girl in the Flotilla, and now this."

"Garrus, you'll accompany Samara and I down," Shepard said. She caught the characteristic shift of feet from the others – an unconscious sign that they, too, wanted to go despite the fact that they'd already been through hell.

And now she was faced with a dilemma – she still had several things to complete. After Aite, there would be Liara's adventures with the Shadow Broker to deal with, and then, when things finally seem to calm down, Arrival.

She'd need them all. And to keep them interested, she'd have to do something, keep them engaged somehow. Show them that they're needed. _At least when the Collectors were around we had a common enemy – now it's like I'm asking them to help with the groceries._

"I anticipate that I'll need help," Shepard continued, abruptly changing her mind from before. "Tali, I want you to lead the second team and follow down in the shuttle. I'll probably send you to take out Prometheus Station." _Geth. I need to talk to Legion about this._ "You choose your team." _I'll have EDI forward a list of possible names to you as soon as I can, but word it in such a way that you'll still feel as though you have a choice. You _do _have a choice. I'm just worried. I'll talk to you in private, too._

"Understood, Commander."

"We'll be taking off shortly – I hope you've all said your farewells to Omega."

"And to the beautiful countryside," Jacob chuckled.

"Good. And in case I didn't tell you yet, Aria agreed to help us in return for all of our data about the Collectors and the Protheans. I'm keeping the IFF, though."

There was a moment of shocked silence. "I trust you, Commander," Garrus said carefully, "but I'm not sure that was wise."

"We can't afford to pay her," Shepard said. "It was the only thing I had… that, and I don't think we have to worry about her. She may be a crime lord, but she wouldn't mess with us."

"I can't help but think that you're overestimating your skills at intimidation," Thane said. "She's a dangerous one to have around – as a friend or an ally."

"She understands that I'm saving her neck," Shepard said. "I don't think she'll be a problem… I only have a million more to worry about." She sighed, and the thoughts from before began to twist and turn about in her head like a seizing fish.

It wasn't only the ground team she had to talk with.

"It goes without saying that I've pissed off one of the most influential men in the galaxy," she said quietly. "And he won't take that one sitting down."

She paused, letting that sink in.

"I trust our crew to the ends of the world – I trust you _all_ to do the right thing," she said. "But what's right to one person may not be right to another. If you see anything off, anything different from the normal routine, I want you to exercise good judgement. For now, I would feel a lot better at night if you carried a side-arm with you at all times."

"We don't follow, Shepard-Commander," Legion put in.

"You aren't very touchable," Shepard said. "But others here – Rolsten, Patel – they have families. Husbands, wives, kids… If the Illusive Man decides to use them against us, we may find ourselves in a worse-off situation than before. To put it bluntly, we're vulnerable. They're our weak spot, as much as I hate to say it."

"I'm sure Zaeed would have something to say about that," Jacob said.

"I need to look at all of the angles," Shepard continued. "He won't be happy with us right now. If he tries to get back at us, he'll go for them first. I need you all to be vigilant. Keep an eye out for anything strange."

_I'll never be happy on this ship_, Shepard realized. She was almost looking forward to working with the Alliance again – no, she _craved_ it.

"Any input?" she asked lightly.

Silence.

"Good. Dismissed."

With that they all filed out of the briefing room, each headed to a different area of the ship. Shepard made her way toward the bridge and went to check her emails. As she logged into her account she could hear Kelly nearby, singing softly to herself about "whiskers on kittens". At least _somebody_ was trying to look on the brighter side of things.

Shepard's lips formed a small smile when remembered that Kelly and Kasumi had apparently had a "girl's night out" the previous night. That apparently included watching a couple of old Earth classics, including "The Sound of Music" and "Mary Poppins". It had been a long time since Shepard indulged in either of those movies, although she remembered the music fondly.

She turned her attention back to her email, and was once again partially amazed at how much spam one could receive. Some of it was obviously intended for the opposite gender since it spoke of "enhancements" for certain parts that her feminine anatomy simply didn't have. Yet other emails were obviously for a different species altogether.

She read a few of them for amusement's sake, and then deleted them.

* * *

><p>"I agree, you know," Joker said, when Shepard had made her rounds. She normally did, especially before a mission, but she'd long since thought of him as a subordinate. He was a friend and, she realized, she simply craved the company. "With what you said about the crew and watching out. I was thinking about that a bit ago."<p>

"Yeah," Shepard said. "I feel like a dick about it, but it's a unique position. I can't dispute that."

"I wouldn't. Especially with Tim involved. You don't understand, working for him for two years. Chakwas and I stayed out of the really _bad_ stuff, only did things we agreed with, but I'm sneaky, too. And, I pay attention. You'd be surprised how many people just _don't_ pay attention these days. It gets them killed, or they get cornered. Either way, they're screwed. And there's no reason _not_ to pay attention with this asshole."

"It's always the guys with the motivation that will kill you. At least you can manipulate people in it for material things. Or they'll realize how much it's just not worth to them," Shepard sighed. "The Man has a vision. I'm not sure I fit in those… _parameters_ anymore."

"Hey, if you don't, I sure as hell don't," Joker said. "And they can't get to me, either. No family to speak of, no girlfriends. Just me and my ship."

"I'm worried. I don't like casting mistrust on the crew."

"Yeah, and that's why they shouldn't know, right? You're just being careful."

"I don't know if we got all of the bugs off of the ship."

"Miranda removed all she found."

"But still."

"Hey, you sure she's still on _our_ side? She could still be with the Man, just not _saying_ it, you know."

"She's with us," Shepard said firmly. "And if the Illusive Man goes after her sister, she'd still be the same. She'd just be a lot more pissed off."

Joker laughed. "Yeah, she kinda lives in a perpetual state of PMS."

Shepard sighed. "Sometimes I just don't know what to do," she muttered to herself.

Joker was silent for a moment, and she felt him looking at her. He was in his chair, but she was sitting against the metal dock behind him, beneath EDI's blue orb, staring at her feet. "You're not going to be a downer on me, are you?" he asked.

"Never," she said. "I'm just getting it out now so it doesn't come out at the wrong moment _later."_

"You know, Ashley had a few sisters," Joker mused out loud. "Abby, Sarah, and Lynn, I think. It was kind of funny. Abby was all into the sword stuff, Sarah was the one who took Aikido, and Lynn did the pistol-whipping, right?"

Shepard laughed. When the three had introduced themselves, that had been one of the _first_ things she'd thought of. It had bugged her enough to track down the individual family members themselves and find pictures, but they didn't fit the bill.

"What are you getting at, Joker?"

"After you died… I kind of got in contact with Abby."

Something about the way he said that… "Define _contact._"

"Okay. We were kind of dating."

She blinked. "What?"

"_Anyway_, I'm not getting into those details right now, _but_ she said something interesting."

"Tell me."

"She said that _dissent creates dissent._ Think about it: you like working for somebody who's a downer all of the time?"

"Of course not."

"Because it makes you unhappy. Leeches the fun out of work for you."

"Yes."

"So, simple solution is not to be sad, right? Don't complain, tuck your head, do that kind of stuff and be happy with your lot in life."

"I disagree."

"_Right._ And you should, because _you are a good leader._ Look, there's a _reason_ we still call you Commander, Shepard. You still _are._ You're not happy with your situation, but you do a damn good job of changing it around. You're an enabler, you're… you're _you_, and you're unique and all that shit. I don't know. I'm not good at this. But you're doing the right thing. Just think of it like that, and everything will be better."

She cracked a smile. Just the fact that he was trying to make her feel better spoke volumes about his character, though he probably wouldn't repeat the same speech again. "Is that a promise?" she asked archly. "Just be unique?"

"Be unpredictable, hell, I don't know. Be you, you'll figure something out. Just saying, nobody else I know could have taken the Prothean beacon message like you did. Not without breaking them. And you have the Cipher. _And_ you've talked to Reapers. _And_, oh, by the way, you're a zombie. So _there._ If you stopped trying now, you're still lifetimes ahead of the rest of us. And our problem is that we _know_ it."

"Really?"

"You're pretty good at making the rest of us feel inadequate," Joker said. "Thing is, you know this – _so_, since you always do the right thing, you make us feel like we matter, too. …ish."

Shepard looked up at him with a quizzical look on her face. "I don't think I've ever heard you like this, Joker."

"And I don't normally hear you whining like a newbie sergeant that wants everybody to like her," Joker snapped back.

Shepard actually laughed. "You're an asshole."

"Aaaaaand?"

"_And_ I get it," she continued. "It's all a matter of making the best with what you have. We knew that the Man wasn't going to be on our side forever – it was just a matter of how badly we pissed him off before we diverged."

"Oh, I told him that," Joker said. "When he hit me up with that whole idea – your body being recovered, all that crap. I didn't think it'd work, but I didn't have anything else going for me. So I took the opportunity. But I told them if they somehow managed it, you weren't exactly gonna play nice for long."

"And what did he say?"

"That was for him to worry about. I'm just the pilot. I fly people around. I got to fly a _lot_ of people around – almost quit one time, too. I threatened to crash the ship into a turian installation once. But that was another issue, we got that sorted out…"

"Joker," she said, appalled.

"You don't understand, they were making me uncomfortable. Especially the guy with the cane. Weirdo. _Anyway_, yeah, that's it, after that I didn't get much action. And you know what? I was perfectly fine with that. Heh, y'know, this one time some batarians tried to board our shuttle. It was almost like old times again."

"I can't believe you," Shepard said, shaking her head. "You won't let your morals be compromised for anyone, would you?"

"Nope. It'll probably get me killed one day, too."

Shepard had a sudden vision of Joker and the Normandy disappearing in a ball of light, and she realized how terrible it would be to lose him. "You shouldn't joke about that," she said gently. "I don't think I could lose you, too."

"I wouldn't worry about it, Commander. Let's just worry about making it to Aite. And stuff."

"You'll stay with us?" Shepard asked.

"What d'you mean?"

"After all this is over, you won't feel horrible about staying on as my personal pilot, would you?"

Joker chuckled. "Commander, I spent two years waiting for you to get off your lazy ass and save the galaxy. I'm not going to bail on you now. We have too much to lose. Besides, Abby would _kill_ me."

"Which one?"

"_Both of them._"

She had to smile.

* * *

><p>Shepard found Legion, inexplicably, in the kitchen with Rupert, who was rummaging through the cabinets. "What are you up to?" she asked, coming up to them.<p>

Rupert glanced up quickly, as if surprised. Dark circles ringed his sleep-deprived eyes, but he looked as though he was trying to make the best of it. Kelly had her hands full with insomniac soldiers. "Legion and I are making up some lunch," he said, wiping his hands hurriedly on his apron.

Shepard blinked. "Really."

"He's pretty handy," he said. "Been looking up some new recipes for me to try out."

"Legion?"

"We noticed that the cook needed assistance," Legion stated. "Since Foreteller-Sarah is gone, we have assumed her duties."

Rupert looked up shyly at Shepard. It took a moment for the news to settle, but she began to see the value in that. Rupert was obviously waiting for her reaction, and hoping that it wouldn't be bad. "That's very nice of you, Legion," she said slowly. "We do appreciate the extra help."

"We have also downloaded a multitude of recipes and performance specifications for the kitchen appliances."

"Thank you, Legion." Shepard didn't know what exactly she felt about it, but they were mostly positive feelings. If Legion was itching for something to _do_, well, she couldn't exactly say no… but it also brought into question the whole "human dominating robot" thing that would make things uncomfortable. Having Legion cook and clean the ship would be a waste of skill.

She resolved to find him something more productive to do, and then to tell all her grandchildren (if she ever had any) that once upon a time, when the Council Races and the geth didn't like each other, one geth decided out of its own free will to poke the racial divide and cook the heroic humans some breakfast.

Yowch. That sounded _bad_, even in the confines of her mind. Did she really just think of that?

"I need to talk to you, actually, Legion," Shepard said, motioning with her head towards the AI Core, his usual residence. "In private."

"Acknowledged."

Shepard led him through the Medical Bay and back into the AI Core, passing the few people who were still convalescing in their beds. Chakwas looked up briefly and then returned to her work, looking just as worn and drawn-out as she'd left her. "We're heading into some chancy territory," Shepard said, crossing her arms as the doors closed behind them, cocooning them in their safe haven. "I have a bone to pick with you."

"Metaphor?"

"Yes. Something to discuss."

"Yes."

"There will be other geth on the planet," she said. "I want to make sure that things won't be an issue. But I'm not going to ask you to take out your own people, either. I don't know if they're heretics or not, and even if they are, I don't know if the virus we put in their systems has gotten to them yet. I don't want to put you in an awkward position."

"You are referring to your decision to allow Tali'Zorah to lead one of the alternate teams planet-side. You will not recommended us to her."

"I don't think it would be a good idea, no," Shepard said, shaking her head. "I know you'll do whatever it takes, and I respect that. But it feels wrong to have you down there. I just don't feel comfortable with it. It's not a question of trust. I'm simply giving you the same speech I would give somebody like Tali if the planet were full of quarians."

"We understand and obey, Shepard-Commander," Legion said. "We do not question your abilities as a leader of your ship, nor do we wish to insist upon a coup."

Shepard was a little taken-aback at how easy this was. If it had been anybody else, she would've had to fight on the issue. "I appreciate how understanding you are," she said. "You've been a valuable asset to the crew. I couldn't have asked for more."

"You did not need to ask us, Shepard-Commander," Legion said. "We simply came."

"I owe you and everybody on this ship a debt I will never be able to repay."

"Except for Zaeed and Kasumi, we do not believe that there is any expectation of a monetary recompense for the mission."

"There isn't," Shepard said. "But the debt is there, all the same."

And it would be paid in fire and blood. Legion shifted a little in place, the movement turning his shoulder slightly enough for the red bloodstripe to briefly glow orange in the back light. "You do not owe us a debt, Shepard-Commander," Legion said. "Absolute concurrence has been achieved. We will fight for you as long as you are against the Old Machines."

Shepard sat down on the same table they had placed the geth on when they'd recovered him from the derelict Reaper, suddenly tired of standing. "I'll always fight the Reapers," she said. "But it's never that black and white. It is to me, but some people are still unconcerned. Ambassador Udina, for starters."

"Ambassador?"

"Sorry – I guess he's an advisor now, eh? Something like that. Anderson's the Council Member now. I still have trouble placing my thoughts in the right order. It's like a flaw in my programming. A glitch between the few weeks prior to my death and the days following the… reboot, you could call it. It doesn't affect my performance, it just makes things harder to comprehend from around those periods."

"Understandable. You do not have a redundant memory core."

She laughed. "No – that would be nice, though."

"Indeed. It would be more feasible if your species were to develop that."

"Feasible indeed," she mused. "But we have some of that technology – Keiji's grey box. We destroyed that one, but it's out there."

"For spies and industrial espionage. We are talking about long-term. If humans developed that, many useless processing errors would be overcome."

"What have you noticed?" she asked curiously.

"Kenneth Donnelly works in here every Monday and Friday from approximately fifteen-hundred to seventeen hours human military time and updates the core network to interface with the mass effect drive couplings. Often times he forgets a device and leaves to retrieve it, only to leave it next to his workstation when he's finished. According to EDI, this has happened 19 times. He will also walk into the room and later question why he did so. We hypothesized that he may have a bilaterally-damaged hippocampus. He retorted that we are naked, though EDI informed us that it wasn't meant as an insult."

Shepard had to laugh. "Ken's a good guy – just distracted easily."

"We believe that he is one of many crew members on the _Normandy_ that would benefit from a backup unit."

"Does EDI translate a lot of the ship garble to you?"

"We comprehend most of it. What we lack, EDI and Mordin Solus accommodate."

"Do you have a lot of those moments?" she was curious to know. "I know you adapt – I see it all the time. But is it getting better, or is it still about the same?"

"We can match facial expressions to a database turians use in their government agencies and deduce from there based on the given situation. But we are… inept. We lack social empathy." A pause. Then: "But we are trying."

"I don't think you lack empathy," Shepard said. "You're a hive mind. You want to do what's best for the unit as a whole. Correct?"

"Yes."

"As does every species. It's where fear comes in. It's only a defense mechanism against an external, or internal, threat. It's not that you lack empathy, it's just that you're struggling to feel something that isn't quite there yet." Shepard tapped her head with one finger. "The human brain is a supercomputer that hasn't been fully unlocked yet. But we make the same calculations you do. Not as precise, but complicated things are going on up here, too. So, in a way, we're both just pretty smart computers."

"Yes. But we do not feel as you do. While we understand how one unit may operate independently of the other, it is difficult to comprehend a state that includes individual free will and often grave miscalculations. Many humans do not remember the quadratic formula after they graduate high school."

"But you build your society on math and numbers," Shepard said. "It's your only way to communicate with each other effectively."

"Yes."

"It's not a lack of empathy to be unable to imagine what things would be like if you had to look at things a whole different way," she said. "I can't imagine what it would be like to be a geth, after all. I keep thinking that I would never be alone. But I can't imagine losing my own sense of self, either."

Legion did a very un-Legion-like thing and tilted his head to the side slightly. She'd seen Sarah do that often when confronted with a problem she didn't know the answer to. Had he learned that from her? "We exist," he stated. "We wish to achieve a balance. But we are... scared."

"Scared?"

"We do not feel fear, but we understand that there is a threat that we cannot overcome with our current resources. We define this as a fear. We fear the Creators."

"You're afraid of them because of what they did to you," Shepard said.

"We fear that we will not find a place in the galaxy to be useful," Legion said. "We wish to experience independence. We want to be free. But we cannot travel outside of the Perseus Veil without fear. After Saren led the heretics against the Council Races, geth popularity has dwindled steadily."

"They don't understand what you've all gone through," Shepard said gently. "They don't know that the geth are split down the middle. I didn't know until you told me, either. The only thing that kept me from leaving you there on that Reaper was that." She pointed at the fusion of N7 armor and geth technology on his shoulder blade. When she had first seen it, she didn't know what to think – even if HK hadn't been telling her so, she would have taken him aboard, if only to study him. Some days she would look at it and be grimly reminded of her death above Alchera. He looked like a ghost in that armor. "You truly are a unique thing."

Legion remained silent. Perhaps he didn't quite know what to say.

"It's been a pleasure talking to you, Legion. I should go."

"Acknowledged." As she turned to leave, Legion spoke up: "Shepard-Commander, was this conversation satisfactory to you?"

"Yes," she said. What a strange question to ask. "And you?"

"We concur." Legion fell into step behind her. She stayed behind to check on those still recovering in the beds. The casualties were in two makeshift cairns on Five. Legion passed her and she watched him rejoin Rupert. They made the weirdest duo, but it seemed to work. She talked to the injured ones and placed a hand on the doctor's shoulder before she left to talk to Tali and then, she decided, to Jack.

Their bodies were down there. As she stepped off of the elevator, she looked out the window and saw the two cairns in the middle of the cargo hold, right where Zaeed and Jacob used to beat the shit out of each other.

She was no stranger to death, but their loss was still mind-numbingly raw. The dynamics of those three… they were truly meant to be together. _To live and to die,_ she thought, fighting against the uncomfortable closed-throat feeling that inevitably came up when she thought of such things.

Their lives, and their deaths, made a kind of poetic sense.

Time and time again she heard Joker's panicky voice as she took a nice, safe shower. Time again she heard EDI's clipped announcement over her private link. Time and time again she watched Harbinger raise his weapon and shoot Abby in the chest, and then listened to herself talk about unnecessary things until the sound of her labored breathing faded into the background.

It was the _emptiness_ that struck her. About this time she'd probably see the three of them sitting down at the mess hall to eat or, if they had already eaten, they would be nosing around their particular areas of the ship. Sarah would be in Kasumi's room, or talking with Garrus; HK would have spent time with Jack or Doctor Chakwas; Abby would have been sitting at the foot of Joker's chair, sneaking food in even though she'd been told not to, asking him about the most minute details of his life.

Yes. It was going to be hard. But they'd recover. They had a job to do.


	4. Poker Face

Joker leaned back in his chair and sighed loudly, timing it with the pops of his vertebrae sliding into place after being hunched over the console all day. "Alright, Commander, I'm opening the bay doors now. Good luck."

"_Thanks. See you soon."_

Joker issued the command, completing his minor job for the duration of the mission. He didn't like not having anything to do – Shepard had elected to fly the shuttle down manually, and aside from eavesdropping on their comm chatter he had no other role in the mission.

He _hated_ that.

She'd taken a team of five with her. Samara for obvious reasons and Miranda for the Cerberus stuff. Tali was the second team leader, accompanied by Grunt and Thane. If it all went according to plan, they'd take down the satellite dish and split up from there, then meet at the end. Tali's team wasn't going to have the advantage of the Hammerhead, some kind of new Cerberus tank Tim wanted Shepard to use, so they would take the shuttle into it instead. Joker didn't really know how they'd work that out, but he was sure that they'd figure out something.

Nothing to do. At all. He turned on some music and tapped his foot impatiently to the beat, counting sixteenth notes at the steady quarter note beat. He hummed along to the tune. He looked up funny facts about the artist on the extranet. He checked out Mordin in the Medical Bay (doing well, but he was going to be out of it for a while,) and then he flipped through the camera angles to eavesdrop on the rest of the crew. Jacob was doing his work from Shepard's room instead of the armory – being the Commander's lover boy had its privileges, he supposed.

"Commander Shepard has just terminated communications with the Normandy," EDI reported as a green light on his left winked out of existence.

"I hate this waiting. It's bugging me."

"There is nothing you can do, Jeff."

"Yeah, I know she knows what the hell she's doing, I just wish I knew what was going on down there."

"Any communication from the ground team would most certainly result in a conflict with David," EDI responded. Her tone almost sounded gentle, if AI's could _be_ gentle. "Protocol dictates that we wait. Patiently."

"Yowch, biting, much?" He sighed and reflexively checked over his shoulder at the sound of footsteps. It wasn't Abby, just Rolstein returning to his post after a bathroom break. He scolded himself and set his jaw, looking back at his terminal.

_Just stop thinking about it. Just stop it._

He tried to distract himself. "Have you ever played any online games, EDI?"

"No, I have not. What prompted the question?"

"Legion has," he said. "I think it's funny as hell, AIs playing online games. It's awesome."

"Legion's game-playing was for research into human behavior," EDI chided.

"Yeah, that's what I tell my boss, too," Joker said with a chuckle. He drummed his fingers impatiently on the side of the chair, taking care not to hit the button that would turn him to the right.

They both fell silent. That was the funny thing, though – he didn't feel alone, he just felt like he was sitting next to a friend. When he and EDI had crossed into that territory he couldn't tell, but something had solidified between them during the Collector abduction. Trust or something.

They needed each other, like it or not.

The pilot's thoughts were interrupted by approaching footsteps, and a voice. "Joker?" Garrus said. Joker turned around. "I know that Shepard and the others are on a mission, but I was wondering if you had a few free minutes." He was holding something in his hand.

"It's not exactly like I'm doing anything important," Joker said, turning off his omni-tool. "Was getting bored anyway. I hate not being able to hear what's going on down there, it drives me crazy."

"Yeah, I get you. I was wondering if you'd be up for a game of cards or two," Garrus said, waving the deck. "I was getting bored down there. You can only do so many calibrations."

Joker shrugged. "Sure, why the hell not?" They'd played cards to pass the time before, after all. It was the turian's way of subtly checking up on the ground crew without being nosy about it. Garrus sat down on the floor at his usual spot, and Joker faced him. "Let me know if anything changes down there, EDI," he said. "We playing for money again?"

"Sure, though, maybe not as much as usual; I spent more than I thought I would on Omega," Garrus said with a chuckle, as he began to pass out the cards. The turian was an interesting character to Joker; when he'd gotten back, he was a crazy vigilante with a grudge. But since that whole issue had been sorted out, he'd finally allowed himself to relax. He seemed happier with where he was.

They settled on a modified version of cards using a mixture of turian and human rules. Their versions of poker were surprisingly similar given the circumstances, and it was easy to modify to appeal to both of their tastes. Joker shuffled the deck for them and dealt the cards.

"You guys may be one of the biggest military powers in the galaxy, but I'm going to wipe the floor with you," Joker said, putting down his first card.

Garrus actually laughed a little at that. "If you think you have an advantage because of my race, think again," he said as he drew another card.

"Not a chance," Joker said, throwing a credit chip on to the center of the floor. They played like that for a while, heckling each other, when Joker finally worked up the nerve to ask: "So... how's Zaeed taking everything? He say anything to you?"

Garrus shook his head slightly. "No, I don't think he's said much of anything; he and Jack got drunk on Omega, but you know that," he explained, while tossing out another card. "I don't think he expected to get close to Abby. I think he feels it's his fault she died. I feel bad for the old bastard."

"I still don't know what really happened," Joker said in what he hoped was a conversational voice._ Wow, do I really want to ask him this? He wasn't even there._ But Jacob wasn't on the ship, Zaeed wasn't an option, and he had a feeling Shepard wouldn't want to be questioned about it. "HK died protecting Mordin - I get that. But... when I heard some of that stuff over - well, yeah. I guess it doesn't matter, dead's dead, but it sounded like she was doing something stupid. I couldn't make a whole lot of sense out of the babbling."

What was the last thing he'd said to the two of them, anyway?

The turian sighed. "I wasn't there, either, so I'm not sure of all the details, but I think something got to Abby; she just kind of spaced out. The Reaper was getting angry, and got in their heads. It… took control of her somehow. Interrogated her."

He paused for a moment; Garrus wasn't outwardly upset, but it wasn't hard to tell that the situation got to him, too. "She tried to kill herself. Jacob stopped her, and then Harbinger got too close," he recapped regretfully, lowering his head for a moment.

"Ah." Joker worked his jaw a little bit, and then slid another credit into the growing pile. "That sucks."

Understatement. He couldn't even imagine what that had been like for any of them.

He didn't want to get into a conversation about feelings with the guy. It was just enough that he had an inkling of what happened. Most pilots didn't really get to figure it out. "So what are your plans after all this is over? Staying on with Shepard?"

Again, he hesitated, while tossing a credit of his own into the pile. "I don't know. I don't really have anywhere to go; everyone on Omega thinks that Archangel is dead, and I'm not sure that I really want to go back there. Things weren't right there, no matter how much I tried to make them right. I don't want to desert Shepard, either."

"Yeah, I want to stay, too," Joker said. "Hell, where else can I go? Not home. Not back to Cerberus. But you'll probably want to scram after Hackett leaves the ship. We'll be court-martialed eventually, no sense bringing you into it."

"I'm not Alliance, so maybe I don't have as much of a place in those matters," Garrus began. "But I don't want to desert Shepard, either. Or this team. I've let enough of them down in my lifetime; if Shepard needs my help, I want to be there."

Joker had a good hand. The heavy conversation was enough to detract from the slight sparkle in his eyes when he realized he might be walking away with a bit more than fifty credits. "Not everybody will," he said. "Jack doesn't have a reason to stay anymore... creepy as it is."

"People are going to leave. Tali and I talked about this on Omega," Garrus said. He still seemed focused on the game, but the conversation had also distracted him; Joker could tell that the topics they were discussing weren't simple small talk for Garrus, or for the pilot. "There's no way that everyone will stick around forever. I'm surprised that Zaeed has stuck around as long as he has, because his reason expired the minute that we came back from the Collector base."

Again, he stopped, tossing out another credit chit. "On the other hand, I don't think I'm the only one that doesn't know what to do; there are a lot of us who expected that mission to be _our_ last. Now, we're still alive, and we don't know what to do with ourselves."

For some reason, Joker's first thought was of Thane. They didn't talk much, but he was a sick man. He wanted to die in a way he chose, not battered down by his disease.

Joker wondered if he was disappointed at all.

"Yeah," he muttered. _Hah._ He laughed and showed his cards to Garrus. "Straight flush. Thanks for playing, you turkey."

Garrus smirked, even though he looked slightly taken off guard. "Nice job, Joker. You got me distracted with all the other talk; I suppose I should've learned to watch out for you by now. Hope you make good use of those credits."

"What? No death threats?" Joker asked. "Man, you must be distracted today."

"I'm feeling a little nicer today," Garrus replied with a shrug. "Though, I could start talking about the number of ways to kill you that I learned about back in the turian military. Worse, I could demonstrate what I learned on Omega. Up to you."

He was reaching. Joker figured it was his duty to get him back to normal. "Yowch, why do I feel like what you learned on Omega doesn't have to do with fighting at all?"

"I suppose it was a mixture. There's a lot you can learn there," Garrus answered sagely. "Like I said, want me to demonstrate?"

"I'll pass. I don't think I want to see you demonstrate any of the stuff I'm thinking about, Gar-bear."

"Well, that's disappointing. I don't really get to all that much; the one person that would want to is gone now," Garrus commented, his tone filled with a mix of humor and sadness, as he stood up from the position that he'd been sitting in during the entire game.

"Which person?" Joker asked suspiciously. Was Garrus on the same train of thought that he was, or was there just something completely different going on that he was missing?

"Sarah."

Joker frowned. He didn't really know what to say to that. "Yeah..."

_Really, idiot? Why do I suck at emotional talks?_

"I'm gonna miss them," he said, trying to sound less like a retarded monkey.

"I am too. I wasn't sure what to think of them, at first, especially Sarah, but looking back… I think she was a better person than I thought. I probably misjudged her at one time or another," the turian remarked thoughtfully. "Can't change it now, though. But they were good people."

Joker looked away. "Yeah... They were. It's hard to believe they won't be giving Shepard aneurisms anymore." He chuckled. "Remember when Sarah told Tim that smoking was bad for him?"

Garrus chuckled. "You know, Sarah never knew when the right time was to say something; on the same token, I think she was the most honest out of the three," he admitted.

There was plenty he could say on that subject, but it was too soon. Way too soon. "Yeah... bit crazy, though," he said, as if that lessened the pain a bit. "But so were the other two. Jack and HK was a weird development."

Garrus cleared his throat. "Well, Abby was probably the one that made the most sense out of the three; they all made some bizarre decisions. HK and Jack...I haven't seen quite a pairing like that before. And Sarah had Kasumi take those...pictures of me." Garrus didn't sound happy about that one, either.

"Abby rode a krogan like a carnival ride," Joker pointed out.

"And Sarah pointed a gun at her fellow crewmate, and HK somehow thought that eating green cheese wouldn't bring him any harm," Garrus argued. "They were all insane. In different ways, of course, but insane."

"And too young for this stuff," Joker said. "Just... way too young. If we won, could you imagine the futures for them? Probably merc'ing around for Aria - I don't think they'd be going into the Alliance at all."

"They would've stuck with Shepard," Garrus speculated. "They would've been too lost to go anywhere else. We don't even know if they had anyone or anything else out there; there's nothing on any of them anywhere."

"You know, what if they have families?" Joker said suddenly. "What if they have moms and dads out there who don't know where the hell their kids ended up, huh? It's just - I don't know. I shouldn't be talking about it. But it's not right. If I could ask them one question, it'd be who they _actually_ are."

"Funny how they never mentioned anything," Garrus noted softly. He had obviously given a lot of thought to the subject. "All of us ended up telling Shepard about our past at some point, whether we wanted to or not. Our greatest moments, our failures...they never said anything, even up to the day they died."

"You'd think Shepard would have thought more about that... or tried to force the information out of them at some point," Joker said. She wouldn't have done that, and she'd probably had her hands full trying to stop Miranda from doing the same. But Joker couldn't help but feel disappointed in her, like she hadn't done the best she could with that.

He didn't like that feeling. Blaming Shepard wasn't something he felt comfortable with. He could have asked some leading questions, but he never did. Abby might have told him some stuff. EDI could have pieced together everything. But he never did it, and now he'd never be able to.

"Did you see that memorial thing downstairs? Any idea who did it?" Joker asked.

Garrus slowly nodded. "It was actually some of us, from the ground team," he said with a heavy sigh. "Not all of us; some of us weren't in good enough shape to think about memorials, but it was a lot of us. The crew was in no shape to do anything, either, not after that fight, although we did get some help from Kelly. She and Kasumi were involved in a lot of the creative aspect. It was a joint effort. We just thought that they deserved some kind of tribute, and we thought it'd lift everyone's spirits a little bit. Even Shepard's."

"It fits," Joker said with a nod. "Just... yeah. It fits. It's pretty, too. I think Shepard likes it, too." He wasn't going to mention that he was up all night watching the security cameras when she'd come down with Jacob, nor that he was responsible for playing the music for her and sweet lover boy to dance to.

"I'm glad. I'll be honest, I'm not usually one for things like that. We both know that Shepard isn't. But like you said, it fit this time. We can't sit around moping all the time. I think we've all earned some peace, at least for a little while," Garrus commented out loud. He chuckled slightly. "It's funny; I miss the original Normandy and those days, kind of. But this journey's been... unique."

Joker missed Ashley and Wrex - their conversations made his day. He was about to say so when EDI said, "David is attempting to upload himself on to the Normandy's systems. Rerouting."

Joker turned back around in his chair and opened up the relevant window. "Come on, Commander... How bad is it, EDI?"

"He will break through," EDI stated. "Shutting down all excess algorithms. Isolating variable."

"Shepard..."

Garrus leaned over his shoulder, watching the graphs flicker and buzz. EDI was right - the systems were beginning to lock up and freeze. He heard an alarmed voice saying something behind him. Their computers had locked.

His heart was racing. If Shepard couldn't pull this off...

The console flickered once, and abruptly came back to life.

"Access denied," EDI said, breaking the silence.

Joker slumped over in his seat. "Too close. As usual." He groaned. "I need a new job."

"All of that's still too insane for me," Garrus commented, seeming to relax himself after the few moments of intensity. "Cerberus definitely brings out the worst in humans. Shepard won't stand for it."

"Yeah, I think it's pretty obvious," Joker said. "She and Tali have it covered." He rubbed his eyes to get rid of the tired feeling and drummed his fingers along the side of his chair. "Any moment now, Commander..."

It took a couple of minutes, maybe ten, before Shepard's link finally clicked in. "_Joker, we need a retrieval, but it's delicate. Patch me through to Chakwas_."

"Yes, ma'am," he said, and hit the corresponding button.

Minutes later, Shepard pinged him again. "_We're coming back up. Have Jacob meet us on Five - we're going to need some help."_

"Casualties?" _Say no._

_"We're bringing David up. We're going to send him to Grissom Academy for some help, but he needs medical attention." _

Shepard sounded rushed. "Yes, Commander." He contacted Jacob and brought the security cameras up. "I wonder what it looks like down there."

"I don't know," Garrus said honestly. "This is a new level for them."

"It's not a new level," Joker muttered. "I've seen worse from them... much, much worse."

And those memories wouldn't fade. He'd known Kahoku before their time with him.

Joker glanced at Garrus, and then forked over the money he'd taken from him. "Don't worry about it. Just go make sure they get in okay."

Garrus paused for a moment, but nodded. "Thanks, Joker. It was nice talking to you; surprisingly nicer than I expected," the turian admitted, before turning and darting off of the bridge.

Joker snorted and turned back to his work. "Ever wonder if he has a crush on the Commander, EDI?"

"Not at all, Jeff."

_Of course you wouldn't. You're not human._

But sometimes, he had to wonder if she was more human than he thought.


	5. It starts

The dropship shuddered to a stop. Shepard waited for the green light to appear on the door before activating the lock and opening up to reveal the glossy silver surface of Deck Five. When she looked up, she could see Doctor Chakwas and Garrus watching them from the upper deck, the latter with his arms crossed. She saluted in their general direction and stepped backwards and out of the way. Tali, Grunt, and Thane stepped off of the ship, leaving more room for Miranda and Samara to work effectively.

They'd managed to set up a medical cot on the floor of the ship to lay David on. He'd been silent during their ride back up, staring at Shepard with wide, fearful eyes. It was because of this fear that Shepard took her helmet off and tried to stay out of the way. She was not the most experienced combat medic on the shuttle and knew where her place lay – as far away from David as possible, lest she make him more uncomfortable. Miranda and Samara, despite the lethal weapons hanging off of their backs, generated a much more calming effect than she ever could.

They had managed to find a thermal blanket to wrap around his naked body and keep him warm, but he'd started groaning when they tried to tuck it beneath him. Samara reacted quickly enough, pulling the edges out so it only draped over him, keeping his movements unrestricted. After the ordeal he'd gone through, it was natural that he'd have a bit of claustrophobia. In an attempt to shut him down for good, Dr. Archer had disabled the intubation tube that had been keeping him alive, and as a result he was dehydrated and weak. Despite the fact that David had control of everything on the planet, he hadn't made the connection that he needed that nutritional supply to keep himself alive.

Even if they hadn't come in time, David would not have been a threat for long.

Chakwas arrived carrying her red kit bag. Garrus had made a smart move and had stayed on Four – perhaps Tali had warned him that he might only harm matters instead of helping them. "Oh, dear, what have they done to you, you poor thing?" Chakwas said sadly. Per Shepard's instruction, she was wearing her casual clothes with a plain white lab coat over them. She wasn't sure how David would react to seeing a doctor with a Cerberus logo on their things.

Shepard watched David's reaction carefully. He observed Chakwas with a distant, almost lazy glance that was so different from the one he'd given Shepard. She was careful not to touch him directly and only lifted up the blanket to check his pulse; the rest she achieved with her omni-tool.

"David, my name is Doctor Chakwas," she said calmly. "I'm going to make you feel better. We're going to move you on to this stretcher and take you to my room. It's safe there."

David looked away from her.

"Is Legion there?" Samara asked.

Chakwas nodded. Shepard found herself holding her breath as they moved David on to the stretcher, but he made no noise, nor any other sort of communication that meant he was even paying attention to the movement. Chakwas moved to secure him to the stretcher with the buckles, but Miranda shook her head sharply and she dropped them without asking questions.

"Go in front of us." Shepard moved out of the way and watched as Chakwas and Miranda wheeled David into the elevator and took him up.

"He's too tiny to live for long," Grunt stated.

"He's malnourished," Shepard said. "We'll get him back on his feet."

"That makes me wonder if a krogan born with that kind of impairment would make it under Wrex's reign," Grunt said.

"Wrex might try to find a place for them," Shepard said, but she knew she was being optimistic. No krogan with a neurological disorder would be allowed to live. "Go wash up. You all did an amazing job down there, you deserve some rest. Tali – good job." She pat Tali on the shoulder.

"I will go and meditate on our course, Commander," Samara said solemnly.

As they lumbered off to the elevator, Shepard stayed to roll David's cot up and place it back in its respective place. Thane lingered by the door, his arms crossed, watching her. "You did an amazing job as well, si'ha," he said quietly. "Though you scared us all near the end. We… were helpless."

Shepard just wanted to forget about that, but she had a feeling she'd be having nightmares about virtual realities for a long time. She'd feel a lot better when David was off of the ship. "Thanks," she said. "I was scared, too. Having my own body being taken away from me… it was terrifying. I never want that to happen again."

"If it does, let us hope it is in such a place that we can help you recover quicker," Thane said.

Shepard winced. "I'm sorry."

"Grunt was trying to rip the door open," Thane continued. "It's strange the loyalty you commandeer in such people."

Shepard sighed. "I've thought about that a lot."

"I must talk to you about something," Thane said abruptly. "There is no longer a need for me on this ship. My time here is quickly approaching an end."

Shepard blinked. If there was one person to leave, she'd expected Zaeed or somebody else. She'd known it would happen eventually, but this soon after a mission –

No, she had to honor it. She couldn't be angry. It wouldn't do.

She crossed over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I owe you a debt I can never repay, old friend. You've been an invaluable asset, and I couldn't have done this without you."

Thane smiled a little and blinked. He smelled sweet, like sugar and something else that she couldn't put her finger on. "I highly doubt that." His long, thin fingers stroked her face. "You have no idea how long I've wished to do that. It is as soft as I'd imagined."

She felt her face heating up in embarrassment. "Thane," she said, gently gripping his fingers and bringing them down. She didn't let them go, but just held them there in front of her. "You know we can't do this."

"I realize that," Thane said. "But I wish to tell you what you mean to me, while we have the chance here and now."

Shepard felt a twisting sensation in her gut. Did he have to do this now? She wanted at least a moment to prepare for… whatever he had to say.

"I expected to die on this mission," he said. "I wished for death. It symbolized a freedom I have never experienced. Away from my own pain, Kepral's Syndrome, and even a way to escape my son. But now I have a purpose, and you have given it to me. More than I could have hoped for in my condition. I will remember our adventures, and you, fondly. I will not get between you and Mister Taylor with my own advances, but know that you mean something much more to me than a friend, and that I admire you greatly. You are beautiful, si'ha. I will enjoy the memories."

"I'm flattered, Thane," Shepard said, squeezing his fingers. "You have been a better person to me than I deserve."

"I took this job for no pay," Thane said. "But I feel as if I should pay you in kind, somehow. I have completed the mission set out before me, but that does not feel adequate. I will leave something in your room before I go. I hope that you will like it. No price can be put on the change you have inspired within me, but I hope that it will keep you safe and well in the fight to come."

"Thank you," Shepard said, bowing her head. "When do you think you'll head out?"

"As soon as I can," Thane said. "In the beginning, I had planned to sneak off, but I wish to say goodbye to my comrades one last time, in case I do not see them again."

"In other words, you're not leaving right now," Shepard said with a smile. "I'm glad. I don't want to take a shower and come back to find you missing."

"I wouldn't do that to you," Thane said. "I will see you again. But I thought it would be fair to air my thoughts to you before I actually acted upon them. It is a new concept for me. I plan to find Kolyat… I wish to see him again. I must also go and complete some more… personal errands on Kahje."

"I understand," Shepard said. "And thank you for telling me first. I'll make sure that we stop at a transport hub after we drop David off."

"Actually, I will leave there and board a shuttle to Elysium at first opportunity," Thane said. "But thank you."

Shepard was going to argue, but she realized that Thane needed to do this for himself. He was such a complex, damaged character used to shrouding himself in mystery. When he made a decision, he normally planned to carry it out at the first chance.

"Okay," Shepard said. She smiled a little sadly. "You are a good man. Go get yourself cleaned up – I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yes, si'ha." Thane retrieved his fingers, bowed obediently, and then he left. She heard the elevator door hiss open and then close, leaving her all alone with nothing but her own thoughts as company.

_One down_, she thought sadly. When the tears came, they didn't taste as unfamiliar as they used wiped them away with the palm of her hand and retrieved her helmet from the chair she'd been sitting in. On the other side of the hanger, two silver cairns sat like two landmarks, the overhead lights casting a glow on their tops. She closed up the Kodiak and walked over to them. She hadn't paid HK and Abby a visit for a while, and the thought of what to do with their bodies still lay heavily on her.

The cairns weren't marked. She didn't like not knowing who was who, but she didn't feel up to opening one of them to check. The cairns were an elegant design of some company Cerberus had stock in. There was one for every official member of the ship in the cargo crates, which was how they were able to do something for the bodies in the first place. Sarah should have been there, too.

It was difficult to comprehend that the two of them weren't _gone_ – they were laying down right in front of her. But they would never wake up. They probably didn't even know that she was right there, in front of him, and that everything had turned out alright and yes, she was doing what she had to do.

She felt she had to say something – anything – to gain some sort of closure.

_Four down, _she amended quietly.

"We don't always get a happy ending," she said quietly. "And some people who get it don't even deserve it. But I wish I could've given you guys the happy ending you were looking for."

They were just kids. They were suspicious, sneaky, and downright annoying, but they were _her_ kids and that's what mattered most. The questions she wanted to ask them hung in the air between them like a thick wall – what was their true relation to Cerberus? Where did they come from? Why all the lies? Why, despite the danger, did they continue to fight?

Was it for her, or for a cause she'd never know about?

She stayed there with them for a while, paying her solemn respects. Their deaths hit her harder than she thought they would. She'd never really expected them to die – they were too _present_, too _aware_ of events for them to have any sort of impact on them. They didn't seem like the type of people to do something as ordinary as die on her.

But they weren't soldiers.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm so, so sorry."

* * *

><p>Doctor Chakwas looked perhaps the most disturbed as Miranda had ever seen her. She looked almost sick to her stomach. David and Legion paid no attention, and despite the former's weakened state he was chatting animatedly with Legion like they were long lost friends. He seemed to almost glow with enthusiasm despite his emaciated appearance.<p>

"This is unheard of," Chakwas breathed.

Miranda had the same reaction on Aite. Now, all she wanted to do was keep him out of Cerberus hands. _I feel like a traitor, but I know this is the right thing to do. _"I've never seen anything like it," Miranda agreed. "It's uncanny."

"Luckily, all I have to treat him for is malnourishment. Bed rest and time will do that, but… I can't imagine… just, wow."

"Legion, what is he talking to you about?" Miranda inquired.

Legion glanced her way to regard her. He was standing close to David's bed, perhaps as excited as Miranda had ever seen him. There was definitely a quicker, jerkier way to his movements than usual. "He is asking about our armor, and why it is different on this unit than on others."

"And he understands your responses?"

"Affirmative. This individual is very advanced." Legion let loose another burst of intelligible noises, and David responded almost as quickly. "He can construct basic sentences, but he has not encountered our set-up before. This tells us that the geth down there were heretics, as they had different run-times than us. They were also cut off and isolated from their ships. When David was put in the Machine, he asked them to help. They allowed him into their network, which in turn allowed him to remotely hack into external computer systems."

"But he's harmless now, right?" Chakwas asked.

"Of course. A human cannot hack into a computer from their hospital bed, Doctor. They lack the necessary components."

Chakwas raised both hands in surrender. "Of course. Forgive me."

Miranda actually cracked a smile. With Shepard, anything was possible. "We should be at Grissom Academy late tomorrow evening," she said. "Can you handle him until then?"

"Of course," said the doctor. "Legion, you wouldn't mind staying with us here, would you? You seem to comfort him."

"Acknowledged. We will stay."

Miranda turned around and observed Mordin, who was still recovering on the bed. He had one eye open watching them. His chest rose and fell quickly underneath a thin white sheet. "Feeling better, Doctor Solus?" she asked.

He wasn't speaking as fast as she remembered, but his voice was stronger than it had been. "Will recover." He groaned a little and shifted about in his bed. "Owe you one. Saved my life, yes."

"Don't worry about it," she said, waving a dismissive hand. "How long have you been up?"

"Since earlier this morning. Aware that you have arrived from Aite. Successful mission?"

"Yes."

"Good, then."

"We're on the way to –"

" – Grissom Academy, yes. The man is a mathematical savant. Autistic as well."

"Yes."

"Logical choice." Mordin closed his eye. "Will rest. Talk to you later, Miranda."

Miranda left, rubbing a tired hand through her hair. She stopped suddenly, freezing in the act, and frowned. _Wait, what?_ She turned around and entered the medical bay again. "Excuse me, Doctor Chakwas?"

"Yes?" the doctor asked, turning around.

"Where are Jack and Zaeed?"

"I've released them to Zaeed's room, under the supervision of Mister Taylor," Chakwas said calmly. "I thought about the empty room, but…"

But they probably wouldn't want to wake up in the room Sarah, Abby, and HK had shared. Miranda understood. "Okay. Thank you."

In the meantime, it was high time she got a shower. Genetically perfect or not, she could still sweat like anybody else. She just needed to take a shower, go to sleep and, hopefully, forget about everything for a little while.

She closed the door to her room and let out a sigh she'd been holding back. "This will take a while," she said out loud, not even sure what she was referring to.

"Well, let's get started, then."

Miranda's sidearm was out and aimed even before Kasumi could raise her hands in surrender. "Don't _ever_ do that to me!" Miranda snapped. Nerves already strained to the breaking point frayed even further. Her hand was shaking with the strain of not pulling the trigger. "What are you, crazy? _What the hell do you want?"_

Kasumi took a cautious step back. "Sorry, sorry! I didn't want anybody to see me come in."

Miranda crossed over to her desk and opened up the screen with a wave of her hand, keeping her weapon trained on Kasumi all the while. Nothing had been touched, thankfully…

Miranda lowered her hand, and Kasumi's shoulders visibly relaxed

"I think we're all going a bit crazy here," Kasumi said quietly.

"No. You do not just _waltz into my room_ like you _own the place,_" Miranda snapped.

"Yeah, okay, sorry!" Kasumi apologized. "It won't happen again! Not while you're armed anyway! _Hey_, don't point that at me! Sheesh!"

Miranda snarled and put the weapon away. "What do you want?"

"Let's just take a deep breath, okay?" Kasumi asked calmingly. "I need to know how Cerberus found me," she said. "You're the only one that would know. After we finish up Liara's business, I'm leaving the ship. I have some business I need to attend to… somewhere else. And I need to know what I did wrong to give Cerberus the jump on me. Okay? That's all."

"But you yourself said that you were steps ahead of them when they first started looking," Miranda said.

"Yeah, but I like to have my bases covered. You know how it is. Please, please, _please_, Miranda?"

Miranda massaged her temples angrily to relieve a growing headache. "Yes – fine – just get out."

"Thank you!" Kasumi darted over and gave her a quick hug. "You're the most amazing Cerberus chick I've ever had the fortune of meeting. _Oya suminasai!_"

"Good night," Miranda said stiffly. Kasumi disappeared, the door closing behind her. Miranda locked it with her omni-tool and collapsed into her chair.

"Oriana," she muttered. It was a habit now, to check where Oriana was and how she was doing. The Illusive Man wasn't happy with her – it would help if she sent her a warning, at least, though she'd never accept her help to relocate again.

_I hope he doesn't get to you, too. I'm sorry that I'm responsible for all of your problems in the world._


	6. Sneaking about

Shepard had this thing where she liked to be clean before having a group meeting, but it was late and everybody was tired. She sent an email out to the rest of the ground crew to meet in the conference room the next morning, which Joker barely glanced at before exiting out of the program with a yawn.

Normally, he'd just lock up the controls and head off to bed. But he was still on edge – the Collectors were gone and they didn't have to worry about the Reapers until later, so logically he shouldn't have been too worried. EDI could handle the ship if anything slipped through the cracks, and they had all the crew here again…

Joker sighed and reclined his seat back, placing his headphones over his ears. He was going to be stiff as hell in the morning. "Wake me up if the ship crashes, EDI," he said.

He shifted around a bit to make sure he was comfortable and crossed his arms. _Leather seats,_ he thought, recalling the inexplicable joy he'd experienced when he'd first figured it out. _I love me some leather seats._

He slept fitfully. He didn't get a lot of rest – his dreams kept him from that salvation. The Reapers and the Collectors floated in and out of the viewscreen as he played a game of poker with Ashley and Kaidan. It was one of those stranger dreams that seem to bridge into elaborate stories that, when you thought about it later, made absolutely no sense. He kept passing Sarah in the hallway.

His omni-tool went off what felt like a short time later, the pre-programmed alarm bugging him until he turned it off. It took a while for him to open his eyes – he knew he didn't have to get dressed or take the elevator up to the cockpit, so it wasn't exactly like he was on a tight-ass schedule or anything.

And he was just as sore as he'd imagined he'd be. It reminded him of the time he fell asleep on the floor of his parents' car and woke up hours later to experience his first muscle spasm.

His took off his headphones with a groan, his joints popping in a worrying way. It had to be about six o'clock in the morning. Which meant, if he did his calculations correctly, he might have gotten about three to four hours of sleep. Something like that.

_Counting hours of sleep, now? Lovely. I _am_ getting old._

"That was probably not the best idea, Jeff," EDI said. Helpful, as ever.

"Nobody asked you."

He could already hear people changing shifts behind him. "I noticed that the Commander did not go to sleep alone again last night."

Joker chuckled. "Jacob?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, they're an item now." Joker just shook his head. "Let's see how long it'll last, eh? What's our projected flight time?"

"We are making good time, and will arrive at Grissom Academy in thirteen hours."

"Good." There wasn't going to be much else to do. Joker slowly rose from his seat and rolled his shoulders. "Ugh. I want to say that's the last time I'll do that. Still better than the old seats, though. I'm gonna hit the head, I'll be back."

He took care of his business and stopped by the mess hall for some grub. Rupert was just cleaning up, but he had some leftover eggs. He ate quickly and returned to his seat, wondering what the hell he was going to do to keep himself entertained for the next thirteen-ish hours. Normally he just people-watched, but that lost its fun after a while. And Shepard would kill him if she found out he was watching her in her room.

He could probably sleep some more. Technically, that wouldn't be allowed.

_But_ it was a civilian ship, not exactly military. There weren't any rules…

It was funny – every time he thought of what he _wanted_ to do, he never really realized there weren't rules to bend. People just wore the uniform out of habit and comfort. It was equally good and bad on his part; the good was that he didn't have those blasted government filters on the extranet. The bad? He couldn't get in any real trouble. When Anderson helped them hijack the SR1, he'd had the time of his life. Impossible challenge, big space battle, and _bam!_Dead Reaper.

Even now, he still didn't even know what to do with all this freedom. So, he did the only sensible thing.

A few seconds later, the music on his playlist began to play over the ship's speakers.

"Joker," somebody complained.

"Just keeping things fun!" he called back.

"You must be bored," EDI stated.

"Hey!"

"Humans often do inane things to keep themselves engaged, I've noticed," EDI said.

"Don't judge me 'cos I'm beautiful."

EDI was silent for a moment. Then: "I don't follow. I am not programmed to judge based on appearance."

"Really?" he asked archly. "What about Zaeed?"

"I am not aware that I've judged Zaeed."

"Who looks scarier, me or Zaeed?"

"Zaeed looks more physically intimidating. Given a fight between you two, he would win."

Joker rolled his eyes. "But, thing is, you find him scary."

"No. He does not pose a danger to me."

Joker began to wonder when he'd lost track of the argument. "Okay. Fine. Shepard or Jack? Jack looks scarier, but we both know Shepard kicks ass."

"If they fought, Shepard would be at a disadvantage. She possesses neither Jack's biotic ability nor lack of moral boundaries to control it."

"So who would win?"

"I would imagine Shepard would. And if she didn't, Miss Lawson could reassemble her again. That is a joke."

"_Wow._ I'll tell her you said that."

EDI's tone became stiffer. "You asked me to hypothesize, Jeff. I do not see a reason to share my hypothesis with other crew members."

"Hah!" Joker pointed his finger at her and laughed. "Who could win in a fight, EDI? Me, or you?"

"I could crash the ship, Jeff."

"Which would kill you," Joker pointed out smugly. "You can't win if you kill yourself, too."

EDI didn't answer.

"Check and mate. Booyah."

Something hard hit the side of his head. "Yowch!" He looked up, to find a thoroughly unimpressed Commander Shepard staring down at him. "Hey, you didn't hear any of that, did you?"

Shepard merely raised one eyebrow. God, he _hated_ that eyebrow. "What didn't I hear, Joker?"

"Nothing, nothing," he mumbled, glaring at EDI. "What's up, Commander?"

"The music," she said.

"Yeeeeeeeeeah…"

"Joker…"

"_Fine._" He turned it off. "Killjoy." She handed him a cup of coffee. He blinked in surprise. "For me? Thanks."

"You slept here last night?"

"Yeah. I didn't feel like going to bed."

"Any particular reason why?"

"Too lazy, I guess. I don't know."

Shepard crossed over to the side wall and sat down there on the floor, right where Abby used to sit when she was bugging the hell out of him. "You should get your rest while you can," she said. "Stuff's going to hit the fan soon."

"Yeah, yeah," he said. "I know."

"Really. I can't have you operating at fifty percent, here."

"I'm at least an eighty percent right now. Seriously, I'm doing fine."

"_Are_ you?"

Joker raised an eyebrow. "Alright, now's not the time to psychoanalyze me, Doctor, but thanks for the sentiment."

"I know we haven't talked about it yet," she said carefully. "But if you ever want to, you know I'll listen."

"Right."

"And we need to get it out of the way before I get court-martialed. Because I don't know what will come after that."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." He shook his head. "No, I don't want to talk about it. But thanks."

"Okay."

Was she expecting him to ask how _she_ was holding up? No, probably not. She wasn't a big one for emotional talks. It was nice of her to ask, but it wasn't needed.

He'd already gone through the worst death of all, anyway.

"How's your shoulder?" she asked. "Did Chakwas take a look at it?"

"Nah, it's fine. I didn't really see the point of bugging her about it, it's happened before. If I complained about every little bump and scrape, not much point for keeping me around, right?"

"It's your health," Shepard pointed out.

"Just a thought," he said. "Just one thought. Uh, you know how they brought _you_ back? Maybe they could do the same for Abby and HK."

"It wouldn't happen," Shepard said flatly. "And I wouldn't allow it."

"Yeah. Okay."

It was worth a shot. He wasn't expecting anything – didn't even have his hopes up, really – but it was a question he felt he had to ask.

"By the way, Thane's going to take off at Grissom Academy. Just thought I'd let you know, in case you want to say anything to him before he heads out."

Joker blinked in surprise. "Already?" he asked. "I guess there's not much else to _do_, but still…"

Shepard's omni-tool pinged. "Yeah? Okay, sure. Thanks, Kelly." Shepard closed out of the link and stood up, a frustrated look on her face. "Kasumi and Grunt want to talk. Joker, made sure the Kodiak has some fuel in it by the time we reach Grissom Academy. I have a feeling we'll be using it."

"Uh, yeah. Sure."

Shepard walked away, leaving a very confused Joker behind her. "I guess they can leave if they want, but it's a bit soon, don't you think?" he asked EDI.

"I have sent a message to Ken and Gabby to refuel the shuttle," EDI said.

"Thanks," he said dryly. "Man, if mom could see me now…" He debated leaving the thought unfinished. It wasn't exactly something he was up to sharing. She'd probably be scared, worried, and too _motherly_. She'd try and talk him out of staying with Shepard. "Well, we'd have zombies on top of everything else."

"Your mother?"

"That's right, EDI – _your mom_. Guaranteed to end a conversation in point three seconds. Always wanted to pull that one on Udina. He hits me as a guy with parental issues."

"You are in a strange mood this morning."

"This is basically my job. Watching all these flashy lights. Sometimes, I even get to push one. Woohoo. That's what's up." He sighed. "I swear we got some lateral drift. The old _Normandy_ never had that. It's bugging me."

"We don't have the capacity to fix that now."

"Yeah. Ship's unbalanced. It happens." He glanced over his shoulder to make sure that Shepard was gone, and a grin appeared across his face. "So… Jacob and Shepard. That's going to be fun."

"How so?"

"Shepard's the type of girl who knows what she wants and how to get it. But that's normally with political stuff, or weapons, or collections of aliens across the ship. Wonder how she'll go about _other _things." He found himself chuckling. "Or Jacob. God, I can imagine it now. _Hey, Shepard, come into my cockpit. I wanna see how you handle the helm. You can grab my joystick whenever you want._"

"But Mister Taylor does not own a ship," EDI pointed out.

"It's called _roleplaying,_ EDI. Sheesh!"

"Ah. I do not understand the concept of sexual fetishes. Would the thought of grabbing a joystick excite the Commander in that way?"

Joker shrugged. "Hey, I get excited every time I… well, never mind." Better left unsaid. "It's not like it's unique to humans, y'know – I bet the asari get up to it all the time. They're nasty, deep down."

"I will not do an extranet search for this type of material, Jeff."

"So you have morals – that's _good._"

"It's against my programming, actually."

"Oh, riiiight, you still have that. Sorry, but hey, just think of it as having your own set of boundaries."

And so they continued.

* * *

><p>Kasumi didn't fidget in the face of danger, but this was something different. As soon as Commander Shepard had opened the door to her room and sat down on the couch beside her, Kasumi had rearranged the books on her bookshelf three times, watered the roses on her desk, and straightened the paintings on the wall. She'd even opened up the exterior viewport so she could watch the stars as they glided by. It was dark in her room, save the softly glowing lights from the mini-bar. Now the two of them were looking each other in the eye over two glasses of blue asari wine that Shepard hadn't even touched and she felt that she shouldn't, either.<p>

It was a serious occasion.

She told herself that she shouldn't feel nervous about it. She'd looked it over objectively and deconstructed the situation stoically. And, after all, she'd only agreed to help Shepard during the course of the mission. She hadn't expected to get out of it alive, either. The injuries that she'd sustained could have been lethal if they weren't treated properly, and now she had to live with the pain for a couple of weeks, or longer.

Doctor Chakwas had done a wonderful job on her leg, better than she could have anticipated given the amount of work she'd had to do in order to save Mordin's life. Garrus and Miranda had helped as well. Garrus had shared with her that he'd patched up a similar wound on a C-Sec officer's leg years back. His fingers had been surprisingly gentle.

But she wasn't dead, and that meant that the contract she had was truly and unquestionably fulfilled. They'd done what they set out to do. She'd been paid in advance and she'd even gotten to say goodbye, however roundaboutly, to the love of her life. She'd made a lasting friendship with many on the crew and, while the deaths still hung in the air like a darkened cloud, she knew that she would always consider the _Normandy_ a home away from home – the first she'd ever truly experienced in a long time.

She explained this, and more, to Shepard, who listened to her with rapt attention. Her eyes were puffy, like she hadn't gotten enough sleep, and her fingertips seemed to tremble so slightly that she did not seem to notice. But Kasumi was trained to notice these things, and it made her sad. When was the last time she'd eaten? Or slept the entire night?

"I just think it's time for me to go, Shep," Kasumi said. "You don't really need me anymore, and I need to get out and check on some old contacts. I really want to stay, but it wouldn't feel right. You're going to help your friend, and then you're going to do some really… well, you know that." She grimaced. "Forgive me?"

"I understand your reasons and I don't question them," Shepard said. "I'll be sad to see you go."

"I'll be sad, too," Kasumi said. "I have a safe place on Elysium. I'll move all of my stuff there, and what's done is done." She held up a small card that had been lying facedown on the cushions between them. "I even have my ID."

Shepard reached for it, and Kasumi's first reaction was to playfully yank it away. But Shepard was a friend – she allowed her to take it.

"Irimi Pierce?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah. It's a cover of mine. Don't tell anybody."

"You bought an apartment or something with this?"

"In the middle of the capitol."

Shepard looked it over some more, and then she handed it back. "Okay. Thane is leaving, too. You might be able to convince him to carry some stuff to your apartment with you."

"That sounds fun – nobody will notice a drell on a human colony," she pointed out. "Sorry, Shep, but that's a bad idea. I can manage it by myself. Thanks, though, I appreciate it. Thane probably won't go through official channels, either. I'm at least making an attempt. I have all of my papers."

"What if I need to find you again?" Shepard asked. "How can I get a hold of you?"

"I have an email address for Irimi, if you'd like it," Kasumi said. "I'll send it to you. If you need my help, just send me a message with a funny picture or something. I can get in touch from there."

"Immediately?"

"Of course, Commander, I _am_ a professional after all. You're just a client."

"You're sounding more like Zaeed every day," Shepard muttered.

"I'm just trying to lighten up the mood," Kasumi said guiltily, scooching over to hug the Commander. She, thankfully, hugged back. "I feel bad enough about this as it is. I don't like leaving."

"I won't attempt to make you stay," Shepard said. "You've always been a stabilizing element, though. You are a beautiful, lovely woman. I have never met something with as kind a soul as you have. I wish you the safest of travels, and I hope that we'll meet again."

"Aw, Shepard, stop it, you're making me blush," Kasumi said, laying her head on her shoulder. Those were the nicest words Shepard had ever said to her. "I appreciate it. And if anybody can take down the Reapers, it's you. You're going to kick some butt. And I think you're the only one who can hand their asses to 'em _properly…_ I'm not even mad that you and Jacob are a couple now, honest!"

Shepard laughed a little. "He's a good man."

"Yes, he is." Kasumi appreciated Jacob for everything that he was – hardworking, courageous, kind, methodical, and _grounded._ Even when he got angry, he never let it affect his duties or his attitude about life. He was the perfect pivot point for Shepard, a compliment to her ability to fight the type of battles you could only dream about. "I'm happy for you. You deserve a guy like that."

Shepard smiled. "I appreciate it."

"I don't know if you guys are thinking about it yet, but if you ever think of life after the war, you should get married and settle down somewhere. You both deserve a vacation. Some kids might mellow you out. Do you ever think about kids? Little Shepards running around your feet?"

"I've always liked the idea, I've just never liked the men," she admitted. "With Jacob… we'll see. I know he's the type of guy that won't do something unless he's entirely sure about it. I feel safe with him. I know that he respects whatever choices I'd make down the line… Kaidan didn't do so well at that. He and I talked about kids once, but not seriously. I think we were waiting for the right time. Two years later and I still don't think there _will_ be a right time. Getting pregnant in the middle of the war would be a horrible decision. I can't raise a child in the middle of this."

"It's all about what's best for them," Kasumi agreed. "But if you ever have kids, I want to be one of the first to know. I'll even babysit!" She cackled. "It would be great!"

"Auntie Kasumi? Yeah, why do I have the feeling you would teach my children horrible things?"

"Oh, don't worry about _that_ – just think of all of the money you would save on babysitting services."

Shepard shook her head with a chuckle. "If I had kids, they would be surrounded by the most loyal, fierce protectors of all."

"Yeah, if you get called away somewhere, just leave them with Zaeed and Grunt. Can you imagine?"

"If I have children, they'll inherit my penchant for bad luck or getting into trouble."

"It's a dream, though."

"Yes… it certainly is. One I would like to consider one day, if I could. But not now."

"I understand."

Shepard grabbed her drink and took her first sip of it. "I think I'll go check on Grunt… Kelly said he needed to talk to me as well."

Kasumi could only guess what about. The krogan didn't exactly make it a habit to go around requesting for his battlemaster's presence… but then again, neither did she.

She thought she knew why, too.

"I'll let you go," she said. "But thank you. For listening to me. For always being there."

"Of course," Shepard said, rising. "I'll talk to you later."

"'bye."

Shepard left, and Kasumi was left with a glass of wine she hadn't even touched. She observed it for one moment, and then took a large gulp. It was asari-brewed, so it went down smooth as could be, but it still made her eyes water a little bit. She finished off the cup as fast as she could, and she, just because she could, she typed in an order on her omni-tool.

The world around her unfocused a little, and took on a darker sheen.

Invisible, Kasumi left her room, locking the door behind her out of habit. There was nobody in the hallway, and all of the doors were closed save for the door to the crew quarters. She heard conversation from the mess hall, but that's not where she was intending on going. She called the elevator and rode it down to Four, quite aware that EDI (not Joker, he probably wasn't paying attention) could infer that it was her on the elevator.

The door opened. She stepped out and, almost pressing her face to the glass, peeked over at Grunt's room. He was still alone. So where was Shepard?

It was almost as if the very thoughts had summoned her, because the elevator dinged and the doors opened, revealing Commander Shepard. She must have made another stop before coming down, which was great for Kasumi, because that meant that she could follow her in with no consequence.

Shepard's quick footsteps helped to mask the sound of her own, and when she opened the door Kasumi made sure to slip in as softly and smoothly as she could without drawing attention. Grunt was sitting on the floor like an overgrown child, cleaning sections of his armor with a kit that Zaeed kept underneath the work table in his own room.

He stood at her approach. "Shepard."

"Grunt."

Kasumi moved to the corner closest to the door and sat down. She supposed that she _should_ have felt conflicted – but really, she was just curious, and she'd know the outcome of the conversation quicker this way.

Shepard crossed over to him. She had that Commander Look and that Commander Walk going for her now. She carried herself differently around Grunt, like an alpha dog strutting around the camp, making sure everybody stayed in line. That's what Grunt expected to see, so that's what she did.

"Kelly said you wanted to discuss something with me," Shepard said calmly.

"Yes," said Grunt. "Wrex told me to return to Clan Urdnot after completing the mission. I do not know what to do."

"Why not?" Shepard said. "I would think the choice would be simple. You are of Clan Urdnot. Does that not give you purpose?"

"It does. But you are my battlemaster," the krogan grunted. "I need your approval before leaving."

"You have it. Wrex will keep you happy – I'm not sure that I can anymore."

Grunt snickered. "I was just thinking… we just killed the most dangerous people in the galaxy. So that leaves us. I like that."

Shepard nodded. "Crossed my mind, too. It's something to be proud of."

"I have a Collector head in the refrigerator on Three. The cook hasn't touched it. I'm going to bring it to Tuchanka, and I will stick it to Wrex's seat as a mark of my strength. The memories tell me that it will be looked over well."

"You have a Collector head in the refrigerator upstairs?"

"The Doctor told me that I couldn't use the one with all the organs in it, so I did the second-best thing," Grunt said. "It wouldn't do good to make her angry."

"Are you wary of her?" Shepard said curiously.

"Yes. There is no sense in pissing with the person that's supposed to fix you. I won't mess with her."

Kasumi found herself grinning at that one. She'd have to tell Chakwas that.

"Just don't forget it when you leave," Shepard said.

_I'm telling your children this story,_ Kasumi vowed.

"I will leave for Clan Urdnot when we reach Illium," Grunt stated. "But I will need… help. I do not know how to travel on my own."

"I'll sit down with you after Grissom Academy and we'll come up with a travel itinerary," Shepard promised. "I'll also give you enough credits to stay on your own for a while, if that's what you would prefer. Get a new suit of armor."

"No. This one is useful enough."

"Then keep it for yourself. You've been a fine soldier, Grunt – I look forward to working with you again."

"You will always be my battlemaster, Shepard," Grunt said. "If you call, I will be obliged to answer."

"Don't do it out of obligation – do it because you _want_ to. I won't keep people under me if they don't feel like they can handle it. But I assure you that any enemy of mine is going to be worth killing."

"I want to take down a Reaper with you, Shepard," Grunt said. "We will do this. A hunt to remember."

"Indeed," said Shepard. "It will be."

"My blood is boiling at the thought. I will be ready, and when you call again, I will bring others. We'll drag Clan Urdnot to victory."

"I was pleased to hear of your commitment during the final attack on the Collectors, by the way," Shepard said. "I meant to say this earlier. The squad told me you gave them no quarter."

"You missed it," Grunt said, and when he spoke there was a fire in his eye that make Kasumi shiver. "It was goddamn glorious. I climbed out over their bodies. They piled up nicely and blocked the entrances for us."

"Good spirit," Shepard said. "I'll talk to you later, Grunt."

He chuckled. "Battlemaster."

Shepard passed so close to Kasumi that she could smell the slight perfume of her hair. She followed her out and watched her get on the elevator, but did not take the elevator up with her. She stayed there and waited for the elevator to become empty again, and just looked out at Five. The patchwork Aria's people had done was haphazard at best, but it would hold. It _looked_ resilient. She remembered watching the Oculus ram into the cargo hold and tear it apart. Alarms had gone off throughout the ship.

The door to Zaeed's room opened and the old man wandered out, dressed in his regular fatigues. A sidearm was strapped to his belt. His eyes were puffy from lack of sleep, and his hair was tousled, but he looked just as badass as usual. He always looked like he was wearing armor, regardless if he actually was or not.

Joker was right – he _did_ have a certain resemblance to Shepard.

He was still wearing that bracelet, too. Her eyes involuntarily teared up, but she fought the feeling. He was going for the elevator, so she decided to follow him in. She stayed far away from him, leaning on the wall, and as they ascended towards Deck Three she heard him grumble something unintelligible to himself.

"Shouldn't have done it," he muttered. "Shit. Amateurs."

A lot of people liked talking to themselves when they thought they were alone. Jacob in particular liked to relive past conversations and fire back witty replies at imaginary people. That always made her giggle. She didn't know what exactly Zaeed was talking about, and realized that she probably never would. Probably going through a fight in his head or something. He did that sometimes.

He got off at Three, so she decided to as well. Zaeed lumbered off to the men's restroom, and she waited for him to be inside before she uncloaked in front of her door and entered her room. The familiar darkness was comforting. She'd always been a nighthawk.

She looked around at the place and placed her hands on her hips. She'd really settled in, but now…

It was going to take a while to pack. It was time to get started.


	7. Grissom Academy

Shepard had just gotten Anderson's approval letter when they docked. The ships master wasn't too happy about having an unknown ship blaze in out of nowhere, and less than happy when she wanted to contact the President of the school right away. She waved the letter from Anderson in their faces and was brought immediately through wide, sterile halls full of children to an office in the center of the station where a prim, petite lady in golden overalls surveyed her through horn-rimmed glasses. The name on her desk was Professor Xanthia Flores.

"Commander Shepard," she said, rising from her seat to shake her hand. "Pleasure to meet you."

"Thank you," Shepard said. At Flores' insistence, she took a seat across from her. Doctor Chakwas had accompanied her and took her own seat to her right. "This is our ship's medical authority, Doctor Chakwas. She has distinguished service medals in the Alliance Navy for her work with me two years ago during the Battle of the Citadel."

"Pleasure," Flores said. Her smile didn't waver.

"And have you read the letter Councilor Anderson sent to you?"

"I have looked through it briefly, yes," Flores said. "However, I believe I get the point. You're telling me that you wish to enroll a new student. Can you be a little more specific? As you know, we have several programs running within this facility."

"I rescued him from a horrible experiment yesterday," Shepard said. "His name is David, and he is a mathematical savant. His skills are impressive, and I believe that it would be to your benefit to accept him into your program, where he'll find a nice, secure environment."

"Has he been tested yet?" Flores asked. "Do you know of any transcripts or educational background you can give me?"

"The boy is twenty-four standard years old," Doctor Chakwas said. "His capacity for problem-solving is off the charts, in my opinion – he's much smarter than the three of us combined! But he's autistic. He has special needs."

"We have reason to believe that the people who had performed experiments on him may try to get to him again in the future despite our effort," Shepard said. "We believe that Grissom Academy is one of the safest places we can put him."

"Explain to me these… experiments," Flores said, leaning forward curiously. "What kind are you talking about?"

"David was hooked up to a super-computer," Chakwas said hesitantly, looking at Shepard. "He was treated like an animal."

"To further what end?"

"He could communicate with the geth," Chakwas said. "They normally communicate at the speed of light, and their transmissions are all numbers, every single one. _That's_ how I know he is a savant. He excels at it. The group I'm speaking of learned this and attempted to integrate it into a program they'd already been developing illegally outside of Council Space in the Terminus Systems. He was malnourished and very weak when we finally got to him."

"That is… amazing," Flores said. "Spectacular. Nobody's been able to communicate with the geth before. What type of experiments were they doing?"

"I believe the Councilor sent a copy of my report to you as well, if you would read it," Chakwas said.

Flores pulled up the relevant file on her desktop and read it. Shepard watched her reaction stoically, keeping a calm mask as the President's brow furrowed even more as she scrolled down. There was a privacy screen on the other side, so Shepard didn't know exactly what part she was getting to – not that it hardly mattered.

"David is a bit old for our program," Flores finally admitted. "But I can't turn him away. He has a talent that needs to be nurtured and an environment to do that in. What happened… that was horrible. How is he now?"

"Still in the medical bay," Chakwas said. "He is recovering slowly. I would recommend transferring him to your medical unit and placing him under the care of a female doctor until he recovers."

"There will be some paperwork that needs to be done, but I'll let him aboard," Flores said. "I would also like to meet him myself. I'm going to forward this to Doctor Roe and have him transferred to the medical wing in the Ascension Project, since it's closer to your ship."

"The biotic program is running strong?" Shepard asked.

"As strong as it can be," Flores said. "We're happy with the progress we've made with the children, despite the hiccup in the beginning of the year."

"I heard about that," Chakwas said. "A man came and tried to kidnap the children, didn't he?"

"It's been taken care of," Flores said. "He was mentally deranged and had gotten his hands on a couple of powerful weapons. One of our faculty managed to take him down. Miss Sanders has always had the interests of the children at heart."

Shepard realized that she'd heard that story before, and not just from the extranet. She'd been told about it.

Paul Grayson was the deranged man. He hadn't _gotten his hands on a couple of dangerous weapons._ No, he'd become a Reaper tool. And it was the Illusive Man's fault.

Deranged, indeed.

They took Flores to the ship, where they met Doctor Roe, a petite woman with very black hair and large, warm blue eyes. They took instantly to David, and with Roe's help they managed to get him safely off of the ship.

Shepard paid the most attention to Flores, who was eying the interior of the ship with a skeptical look. She _seemed_ impressed, but she was calculating something in her head. She looked like she'd been around Alliance ships before, and she seemed thrown off at the Cerberus symbols. Whether or not she knew they were Cerberus symbols, Shepard would never know. Legion stayed out of sight.

David was groaning a little, but he seemed to be doing alright. Roe kept up a tirade of happy, cheerful talk as they went, trying to solidify a connection between her and the lost, confused man. He kept reaching for Doctor Chakwas, who held his hand happily. Later, she would tell Shepard that it was a big achievement for an autistic man such as him, especially after so much trauma. It was at that moment that Chakwas knew he was going to recover.

He looked right at her as they wheeled him into the medical bay and asked, "Where is Legion?"

"Legion couldn't come today, sweetie. I believe he already said goodbye, didn't he?" Chakwas asked.

"Goodbye." He looked away and positively pouted as they hooked him up to the IV drip.

"What's your favorite food, David?" Roe asked. "I'll grab you something."

Silence.

"We have chicken, steak, some asian, vegetables like carrots and beans and…" She went on and on, naming different items they had in the cafeteria, until David blinked abruptly at the mention of one of them. "You can eggs and bacon? I'll grab you some. Was that a yes? Good. That's good. It tastes really good, too."

Roe sent out an order for some eggs and bacon, and Chakwas stayed with David as Flores and Shepard retreated to the other side of the pristine medical bay. She'd just gotten off the comms with somebody and had a frown on her face. "Does this belong to you?" she asked abruptly, showing her a picture of a woman leaning nonchalantly against a doorframe on her omni-tool.

"That's… Jack," Shepard said, a sinking feeling in her guy. _Oh, no._ "I didn't know she left the ship."

"Security just told me she threatened to rip their heads off," Flores stated dryly. "You should go get her under control – now."

"Yes, ma'am," Shepard said. "Lead me to her."

Flores took her down a myriad of hallways. Some of the doors were open, and Shepard could see children practicing biotics in the other rooms. Their powers were weak and measly, but it was nice to see that type of work being put in by the next generation.

"You're a biotic," Flores said. "Correct?"

"Yes."

"An L2?"

"L5x, actually," Shepard said. "I had a bit of an upgrade."

Flores gave her a look and probably would have questioned her further had she not spotted Jack. She stopped. "I'll wait here. Please keep things under control." She looked wary.

Jack was sitting in a chair in the back of one of the classrooms, wearing a black leather shirt over her tattoos. But it was obvious she was scaring the kids, and the instructor looked a little nervous as well. She carried herself with such an intimidating air, the instructor probably hadn't bothered to question her yet.

Shepard sat in the chair next to Jack. "Enjoying yourself?" she asked quietly, as to not disrupt the lesson.

"It's funny – they all stared when I came in. Like I'm some lunatic from out of town," Jack said. "Weirdos." Her voice carried enough for the people in the back row to hear her, and some of them shifted uncomfortably in their seats. "Look at this place, though. Imagine: a camp for biotics. I've never seen one before. I could probably take this place apart if I wanted to."

"You probably could," Shepard said. _But please don't._ "It's not worth it, though. Just be comfortable in your own power. You don't need to give a demonstration."

"Oh, but I think I _do_," Jack said with a grin. "Show them what real biotics look like. Not this crazy shit they're doing. Moving little toy _blocks_ – what the fuck is this? Kindergarten? They need to man the fuck up. They can do better than that. I was moving people by the time I was six."

The kids looked to be at least thirteen. "But you're more powerful than they are, remember? And you had the drive they didn't."

"Still," Jack sniffed, "I'd like to show them. Maybe _that'll_ get the drive going."

"You're deadly, and you know it," Shepard said softly. "You know how to use your biotics to do a lot of great things. But have you ever thought of teaching? Ever taken it seriously? You can't just show them something and expect them to get it right on the first shot."

"Sure I can." Jack stood up, catching the eye of everybody in the room. Everything went silent. The instructor, a man with a graying beard, pursed his lips and tensed up involuntarily as she walked to the front of the classroom. Shepard glanced at Flores, who was her fists balled behind her back. She was close to the security alarm.

"Is there something you'd like to share with the class?" the instructor asked tersely.

"Feast your eyes on _this._" Jack lifted up one hand, lifting up all twenty-four children's blocks with ease. They floated above their little heads, oscillating softly. "So you're having trouble lifting one up? Big damn deal – you're not even trying. "

She threw the blocks into the corner, where they made a loud, crashing noise. There were screams.

"Please, leave the classroom," the instructor said sharply, pointing to the door.

Jack pointed at a little boy. "You. Get up here."

The boy shook his head, eyes wide with fear. "Big baby," she grumbled. "Fine – _you!_"

A little girl looked at the instructor with wide eyes. He shook his head. Jack rolled her eyes, and the instructor was knocked to the ground in the blink of an eye. Shepard stood up, but she felt she shouldn't interfere. Not yet, at least… she wanted to see what Jack was going to do.

The little girl screamed and some of the kids in the back row tried to get up and run out. Jack didn't let them – they bounced into a biotic field.

"Take your seats, class!" she yelled. "Girl, get the fuck up here, I don't have all day."

The girl, trembling all over, walked up and meekly presented herself to Jack.

"What's your name?"

"Jillian," the girl whispered.

"Ugh, really? Whatever." Shepard facepalmed in the back. Jack pointed at the toy blocks in the corner. "See those? Yeah. Move them."

Little Jillian's eyes were watering. She was shaking so badly that she appeared to vibrate. "I can't," she whispered.

"Let her go!" the real instructor snapped. "Xanthia, please –"

But Flores was watching the event with some interest. She didn't seem pleased, but she didn't look as though she was going to stop the spectacle, either. Like Shepard, she wanted to see the outcome. Her eyes were calculating behind those horn-rimmed glasses of hers.

"Look, you can move them," Jack said. "You just have to reach out and take it. Don't worry about technique – just grab the damn things and bring them to me."

Jillian held out her hand, and Shepard saw a faint heat wave emit from her body, warping the area around her. One of the blocks twitched feebly, but otherwise lay there.

"I can't," she cried.

"Stop the whining," Jack snapped. "You don't _want_ it enough. _TAKE IT!"_

Jillian screamed and shook her head. Jack looked up almost hopelessly at Shepard, but seemed to gain resolve from it. One by one, she maneuvered the blocks so they were standing long side up.

"Knock them over," she whispered in the girl's ear.

Jillian reached out a shaking hand, and a whisper of biotic power nudged one of the blocks. It wobbled a bit. Shepard, unable to bear it anymore, focused on the power inside of her and released it through her hand, giving Jillian's biotics a gentle boost. Three of the blocks fell down. Her tear-streaked face looked amazed.

"The rest of them," Jack instructed.

Jillian, surprised at her own success, briefly forgot her fear of Jack. Shepard could see a change in the girl's expression – something had finally _clicked._ A light bulb had been turned on.

Without Shepard's help, another block fell down. Then another. And another.

A full minute later, Jillian knocked over the last block with a final, exhausted push.

The instructor was stunned. "Jillian, that was amazing," he said. "That was wonderful."

Shepard found herself smiling, and looked over at Flores. She had her arms crossed, but she seemed… oddly satisfied.

"They're lacking motivation," Jack said flatly to the instructor. "Give them a kick in the ass and they'll accomplish something. But don't fucking baby them – they have power. Make them use it."

And she walked off, through the door, and into the hallway. Shepard smiled to herself, watching Flores follow her out. Without a word, she used her biotics to safely place the knocked-down blocks in a pile at the front of the room so the children could get to them again.

She, too, walked out, and found Jack walking quickly back to the ship. Flores had disappeared.

Jack's eyes had a feral kind of excitement to them. "The kid did it," she said proudly. "Shows them. I _do_ know how to teach – some people just don't give a fuck about it."

"You did a good job," Shepard said. "I think you scared the hell out of the teacher, though."

"Yeah, well fuck him. I'll fight him any day. And you didn't need to give her help, okay? She was going to get it."

"Sometimes you need to give them a push in the right direction," Shepard said. "If they think they accomplished it themselves, they're more confident about it. It's a delicate game to play, but it works. Biotics takes a long time to master, and they're young. They have time."

"Not if the Reapers come," Jack said. "They need to get it together. The curriculum here stinks – they need to learn it themselves, or they'll learn it _wrong._"

"They have full access to the asari data sources," Shepard pointed out. "There are even some on the ship."

"They need something else."

"Did the woman talk to you at all?"

"What, the one that looks like a disapproving _twig?_" She sneered. "Yeah, she said I did good. Jillian was the worst in the class or something. I don't know. I just told her to fuck off, and she did."

"Where are you going now?"

"Back to the ship," Jack said. "I don't want to get you in trouble. But I had to do that."

"It was a good display, Jack."

Jack stalked off, and Shepard made her way back to the medical bay with a smile on her face. The last thing she'd expected to come of the trip was Jack teaching a biotic class. It was… enlightening.

David was getting settled in. Flores entered the room a few minutes later to talk with him, but he wasn't being chatty. Shepard said her final goodbyes then, figuring Flores was going to give her an earful about Jack. David looked up at her for the first time without fear and said, "Nice lady."

Shepard's heart clenched. "I'm glad you feel better, David," she said. "I'll see you again. Goodbye."

"Byyyyyyye."

Flores led her out of the room. Shepard told Chakwas to go back to the ship. In the hallway, Flores rounded on her. "That display by your companion was completely uncalled for. I don't know if I should have security detain her or offer her a job."

Shepard laughed. "I don't think security would stand up to her. If you knew her story, you'd understand. But we're leaving now. I apologize for the disruption. Please tell that poor man that I didn't mean for it to get that out of hand."

"Yes. I will. Thank you for enrolling David here, Commander. I'm sure he will be an asset. Is there an address I can reach your friend at?"

"Which one?"

"The woman. Jack?"

"Sure. I'll send you a link to it when I get back to the ship," Shepard stated. "We have some errands to run in-system, so expect it later."

"Okay." She held out her hand. "A pleasure meeting you, Commander. I trust you can find your own way out?"

"Yes. Keep me updated on David – I feel responsible for him."

"I will, if you'd like. If you'd ever like to set up a visit, let me know."

* * *

><p>Shepard took her leave and re-entered the <em>Normandy. <em>It was refreshing. "Hey, Commander!" Joker called from the cockpit. "Good drop?"

"Yeah. David's intact," Shepard called over her shoulder, walking towards the elevator. "Take us out."

She met Thane and Kasumi at the shuttle on Five. Kasumi already had her boxes strapped into several of the seats so they wouldn't slide around the bed of the car. She ran up to the Commander and threw her arms around her. "I'm never ever going to forget you," she said, her voice thick with emotion. "You are one of the best friends I've ever had."

"Siha," Thane said gently, waiting politely for his turn. "It's been a pleasure. As I told you before."

"_Assholes – can't believe you're leaving us!"_ Joker called over the intercom. "_What's up with _that,_ huh?_"

"We'll miss you, too, Joker!" Kasumi called.

"Have the others said goodbye yet?" Shepard asked. It was important to her that they had.

"We had a small party while you were on the station," Kasumi admitted. "It was nice. I wish you could have made it."

"But I think you already said what needed to be said," Thane said. He stroked her face. "I am sorry to leave. I will see you again. In this life, or in the next."

"Thane," she said. That moment in her quarters seemed so long ago, but it still felt real and visceral. He was a good friend. She would never be able to forget him. "I wish you luck. I hope that things go well for you and Kolyat."

"They will," Thane said assuredly. "I will reconcile the relationship as best I can. Some things cannot be mended – but they will be, with time."

Kasumi was crying now. "Oh, God, I thought I wasn't going to do this… I can't believe I'm leaving. I don't want to go. I really, really don't want to."

Shepard hugged her. "Shh, it's going to be okay." She stroked her back. "We love you. Don't forget that."

"I won't," Kasumi sniffed. "It's just… so much, all at once. I can't believe it's over. We _made_ it. We actually made it. And I never thought we would. I wish they were still with us, Commander. They didn't deserve it, none of them did."

She collapsed, sobbing, against Shepard's shoulder. "Shh, shh, it's okay, it's going to be okay," Shepard crooned. Kasumi had spent so much time being strong for everybody. She'd never really had that crutch of support she gave to others. Thane joined the pile, rubbing her back with his long, slender fingers. "It'll be okay."

Kasumi sniffed. "I know, but… It's just _hard._ We're leaving, you're going to do your thing, they're dead, and we still have a war to fight. It's insane. It's not fair! What if I don't see you again?"

Kasumi must have felt very secure in her relationship to even voice these thoughts out loud, much less cry on her shoulder. "We will see each other again, Kasumi," Shepard promised. "After the war is over, we're going to celebrate. All of us."

Kasumi nodded against her shoulder. "Yeah. I'll just keep thinking about that."

Thane gently drew her from Shepard's embrace and guided her to the ship. "Do you have everything?" he asked her.

"Yes… all of it, I think." Kasumi climbed into the ship and took her seat, wiping her eyes. "Okay, I think I'm good now. I don't know where that came from."

"I left you a gift in your room, siha," Thane whispered. "I hope that it will save your life one day."

Shepard hugged Thane… and slipped a picture she'd kept in her pocket into his belt. She kissed his cheek. "Safe travels, my friend."

"And you as well," he said. He released his grip on her and entered the shuttle. She took a step back, saluted, and turned around. She jogged towards the elevator as fast as she could and took it up to Four, where Zaeed joined her as she watched the shuttle depart for Elysium.

"Well, well, well," he said. "Hope they live some decent lives. Those are two good people."

"Yes," she said. "They are."

* * *

><p>She returned to her quarters to find her bed neatly made and a rose on the pillow. <em>Kasumi<em>, she thought, recalling an old story she'd told her about her penchant for leaving little signs.

On the foot of the bed was a beautiful sniper rifle, one that she'd seen Thane use on multiple occasions. She lifted it up – it was lightweight, but sturdy, and had a number of aftermarket additions that she didn't think were completely legal in Council Space.

Some writing was engraved on the side. She scanned it with her omni-tool and was surprised to find the translation.

_Courage._

That was one good, good man_. _


End file.
